title: Recreational drug use among primary care patients: implications of a positive self-report.
abstract: Should recreational drug use raise clinical concern? We examined the association between weekend-only recreational drug use at baseline (yes vs no) and any increase in recreational drug use frequency or severity over 6 months among primary care patients who screen positive for drug use. In the weekend-only recreational drug use group (52/483 [10.8%]), 54% (28/52) started using drugs on weekdays. Compared with use not limited to weekends, weekend-only use was associated with lower odds of increasing drug use frequency (AOR 0.48, P = 0.03) and lower odds (non-significant) of increasing severity (AOR 0.56, P = 0.07). Although weekend-only recreational drug use appears prognostically less severe, the findings nonetheless suggest that continued episodic monitoring may be clinically wise.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts jbernste@bu.edu.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Debbie M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Data Coordinating Center, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Caitlin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trilla
authors.affiliation: Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Samet
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saitz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055030:Drug Users / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D057566:Self Report; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs
keywords: consequences of drug use; days of drug use; drug severity; primary care; recreational drug use