Opioid detoxification among People with Schizophrenia (OPS)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Opioid detoxification among people with Schizophrenia: A matched case control study
IRAS ID
342549
Contact name
Stephen KAAR
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 11 days
Research summary
Serious mental illness is often linked to substance use problems. It's estimated that up to one in four people with serious mental illness might have an opioid use disorder. Research shows that people with both serious mental illness and opioid use disorder have worse outcomes. They have more severe psychiatric symptoms, higher rates of hospitalization, and more interactions with the police. Schizophrenia is one serious mental illness commonly associated with opioid use disorder.
While it's known that schizophrenia and opioid use disorder are connected, we don't fully understand how. There's not enough high quality research to guide how to care for these patients .
The goals of this study are to:
1. Identify the characteristics of patients with schizophrenia undergoing inpatient medically assisted opioid detoxification and compare them to patients without schizophrenia undergoing the same treatment.
2. Compare the outcomes of patients with schizophrenia receiving inpatient opioid detoxification to those of patients without schizophrenia receiving the same treatment, and see if any characteristics of the patients or treatment predict outcome.
We plan to conduct a retrospective, matched, case-control study. This means we will look back at data from patients who received inpatient medically assisted detoxification from opioids. Our "cases" will be patients with schizophrenia, and our "controls" will be patients without schizophrenia. We will match cases and controls by age and gender.
We hope this study will help substance abuse services better serve patients with schizophrenia who have opioid dependence. We want to understand more about these patients and their outcomes.
This study aims to influence policies related to drug treatment and public services, and ultimately reduce harms and improve care.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
24/WA/0239
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion