Gender Differences in Health-Related Quality of Life on Admission to a Maintenance Treatment Program

Abstract

We compared the gender differences in health-related quality of life (QOL) on admission to a maintenance program. 103 opioid users (65 men and 38 women) admitted to a maintenance treatment program during 2000–2002 were studied. During this period we assessed the QOL status using the German version (‘Berlin Quality of Life Profile’) of the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile. Physical symptoms were measured using the Opioid Withdrawal Scale. 312 urine screening tests were carried out to evaluate consumption. The female group showed significantly less additional consumption of other opiates (p = 0.043) compared with the male group. The male group showed significantly better QOL scores in self-esteem (p = 0.015), psychical health (p = 0.027), and law and security (p = 0.008). The outcome measures for withdrawal scores showed significantly less symptoms for males in twitching of muscles (p = 0.034), vomiting (p = 0.002), depressions (p = 0.004) and poor appetite (p = 0.008). In summary, both genders showed only a few significant differences on admission in terms of QOL and physical symptoms. The predominant effects of drug use appear to eclipse the gender-related role pattern. Further exploration of gender and QOL could have important theoretical and treatment implications.

Current quality of life and its determinants among opiate-dependent individuals five years after starting methadone treatment

“…The LQOLP has been used in a number of studies among opiate-dependent individuals to measure effects of substitution treatment on QoL [26, 33, 34, 46, 54–56]. The LQOLP measures individuals’ satisfaction with various QoL domains and their global well-being.…”

“…Consequently, results are often limited to bivariate analyses of correlates of QoL [25, 46, 47]. Despite the specific treatment needs of opiate users, only one study by Bizzarri and colleagues [21] examined the independent impact of dual diagnosis, gender, age and current substance use on QoL of opiate-dependent individuals, using the WHOQOL-BREF.…”

Sex differences in outcomes of methadone maintenance treatment for opioid addiction: a systematic review protocol

“…The available studies on opioid addiction in the literature are often limited to men [26] or specific ethnic groups, focus on clinical profiles prior to or at treatment entry [16,19-22], or investigate methadone dose as a single outcome of treatment in association with other factors [27-30]. Sex differences have also been examined in opioid addiction patients treated with methadone in association with factors including prescription opioid use [31], drug use patterns [20], drug treatment utilization [32], psychiatric comorbidity [5,33], smoking outcomes [34], and quality of life [35]; however, little has been reported about differences in methadone treatment outcomes between men and women. Few studies have investigated methadone treatment retention, response, remission, adverse events, health status, social relations, criminal activity, and mortality with a specific focus on sex difference, providing inconsistent results and leaving a large gap in the literature with regards to sex differences in response to MMT.…”

Exploratory Study on Drug Users’ Perspectives on Quality of Life: More than Health-Related Quality of Life?

“…However, instruments for measuring QoL (e.g. the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile, WHOQOL) provide information that is not included in traditional diagnostic and evaluation tools for measuring substance abuse such as the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) or Maudsley Addiction Profile (MAP) (Giacomuzzi et al 2005;McLellan et al 2006;Smith and Larson 2003). They also give a comprehensive view of people's situations, not only focusing on problems and disabilities but also looking for strengths and resources (Maremmani et al 2007;Saleebey 1996).…”