Withdrawal is believed to play a central role in the brain disease model of addiction. However, little research describes withdrawal-motives among untreated individuals in community settings.
This ...cross-sectional study surveyed syringe exchange program participants (
= 139) with untreated opioid use disorder (OUD) in Columbus, Ohio from January 10th to March 25th, 2023, to assess their perceptions of the role of withdrawal in OUD maintenance, treatment delay, and OUD's refractoriness to buprenorphine. Participants responded to a survey including DSM-5 OUD criteria, demographics, and questions about substance use and opioid withdrawal. Participant ages ranged from 21 to 65 years with a mean age of 37.5 years and standard deviation of 8.1. The racial distribution of the sample was as follows: 81% White/Caucasian, 12% Black/African American, 3% Native American or Alaskan Native.
Sixty-six percent of participants agreed, or strongly agreed that opioid withdrawal was
they had been unable to stop using opioids. Almost seventy-one percent agreed, or strongly agreed that worry about opioid withdrawal had caused them to
OUD treatment. Although all participants had active, untreated OUD at the time of recruitment, most (85%) had previously tried buprenorphine, and the majority (78%) reported having experienced buprenorphine-precipitated withdrawal.
Among this community sample of individuals with untreated OUD, withdrawal was perceived to have an important role in maintaining OUD, including by motivating OUD treatment delay. Prior buprenorphine-precipitated withdrawal was common, suggesting aversion to withdrawal might possibly be associated with OUD's refractoriness to buprenorphine.
The study proposes an experimental model for robot-mediated systems in healthcare. The framework outline and required modules are discussed successively alongside the methodology needed to achieve ...the system's base functioning. The concept of response systems and their importance in building an efficient agent for healthcare support are also discussed. The study looks at the concept of human-machine interfaces, medical robotic systems, methods of implementation and design to achieve the conception, the underlying effects, and the public's opinion on technology in healthcare. The proposed system derives from the issues faced in conveying the full capabilities of a healthcare network. The idea behind the proposal is to provide a means to leverage different components of healthcare systems to attain a holistic model capable of serving various patient and staff needs.