Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Apr 29;10(4):e0122626.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122626. eCollection 2015.

Trends of people using drugs and opioid substitute treatment recorded in England and wales general practice (1994-2012)

Hilary R Davies  1 , Irwin Nazareth  1 , Irene Petersen  1
Affiliations

Trends of people using drugs and opioid substitute treatment recorded in England and wales general practice (1994-2012)

Hilary R Davies et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Illicit drug use is a multifaceted public-health problem with potentially serious impacts. The United Kingdom has one of the highest prevalence of illegal drug use in Europe. Reduction of overall illegal drug use in England and Wales has decreased from 11% to 8.2% (2012/13) over the past 10 years. People who use drugs often seek help from their family doctors.

Aims: To investigate General Practitioners (family doctors) first recording of drug use and opioid substitute treatment in primary care settings.

Design: A descriptive study design. Males and females (16-64 years old) were extracted from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database.

Setting: England and Wales primary care.

Method: The first recording of drug use and opioid substitution treatment in primary care was estimated for the period (1994-2012). Poisson regressions were conducted to estimate incidence risk ratios (IRR).

Results: We identified 33,508 first recordings of drug use and 10,869 individuals with prescriptions for opioid substitute treatment. Overall, males (IRR 2.02, 95% CI:1.97-2.07), people in the age-group; 16-24 (IRR 6.7, 95% CI:6.4-6.9) compared to those over 25 years and the most deprived (IRR 4.2, 95% CI:3.9-4.4) were more likely to have a recording of drug use. Males (IRR 1.2 95% CI:1.2-1.3), in the age-group; 25-34 (IRR 1.8 95% CI:1.7-1.9) and the most deprived (IRR 3.9 95% CI:3.6-4.3) were the groups more likely to have a opioid substitute treatment prescription.

Conclusion: It is evident from this study that there is little recording of drug use and opioid substitute treatment in primary care. Most drug users do not receive treatment in primary care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Irene Peterson is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE Editorial policies and criteria.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Venn diagram depicting individuals with one, two or three of the Read and/ or Drug codes.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Combined first recording rates of Read (drug use) and Drug (opioid substitution treatment) codes by age-group (in years) per 1000 person years at risk (1994–2012).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Combined first recording rates of Read (drug use) and Drug (opioid substitution treatment) codes by gender and age-group (in years) per 1000 person years at risk (1994–2012).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Adaptation of Access to Health care pyramid.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Madgula RM, Groshkova T, Mayet S. Illicit drug use in pregnancy: effects and management. Expert Rev Obstet Gynecol. 2011. March;6(2):179–92.
    1. UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME. World Drug Report 2014 [Internet]. Vienna: Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs; 2014. [cited 2014 Nov 10]. Available: http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/WDR2014-Useofdrugs/Map?:embed=y&....
    1. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. European Drug Report 2014: Trends and developments [Internet]. European Union Publications Office: Luxembourg; 2014. Available: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC...,bs.1,d.ZWU.
    1. Office for National Statistics. Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2013. [Internet]. [cited 2013 Dec 19]. Available: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_318761.pdf.
    1. Public Health England. National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse—Homepage [Internet]. [cited 2013 Oct 7]. Available: http://www.nta.nhs.uk/.

Publication types

Substances