Craving in crack cocaine users according to individual and behavioral characteristics

Silveira, Karine Langmantel; Oliveira, Michele Mandagará de; Nunes, Bruno Pereira; Alves, Poliana Farias; Pereira, Gabriela Botelho

doi:10.5123/S1679-49742019000100022

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RESEARCH NOTE • Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde 28 (1) • 2019 • https://doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742019000100022 linkcopy

Craving in crack cocaine users according to individual and behavioral characteristics^*

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Objective: to analyze variation in craving levels according to individual and behavioral characteristics of crack cocaine users at two public treatment services in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Methods: this was a cross sectional study with a sample of 133 participants; the Cocaine Craving Questionnaire scale was used to verify craving levels.

Results: 86% of interviewees had moderate and severe craving levels; regarding individual factors, a higher level of severe craving was found in women (45%), those with brown skin color/“mestizos” (60%), low schooling (46%) and minor psychiatric disorders (59%); regarding behavioral factors, the level of severe craving was higher in users who divorced the last year (44%), those who had problems with the Law (61%), those who practiced violence acts (57%), those using more than four psychoactive substances (67%), and those with heavy crack consumption (57%).

Conclusion: almost all crack users were found to have high craving levels; these were proportionally higher in some individual and behavioral variables.

Keywords:
Crack Cocaine; Craving; Health Vulnerability; Drug Users; Social Determinants of Health; Cross-Sectional Studies

Variables	Total		Craving level								P-value^a
	Total		Minimum 0-11		Mild 12-16		Moderate 17-22		Severe ≥23
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Sex
Female	22	16.5	2	9.1	1	4.6	9	40.9	10	45.4	0.248
Male	111	83.5	4	3.6	11	9.9	49	44.1	47	42.3	0.248
Age group (in years)
<20	6	4.5	0	0.0	1	16.7	2	33.3	3	50.0	0.983
20-24	25	18.8	0	0.0	1	4.0	16	64.0	8	32.0
25-29	31	23.3	1	3.2	1	3.2	12	38.7	17	54.9
30-39	50	37.6	5	10.0	8	16.0	18	36.0	19	38.0
40-49	16	12.0	0	0.0	1	6.2	8	50.0	7	43.8
≥50	5	3.8	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	40.0	3	60.0
Ethnicity/skin color
White	74	55.6	2	2.7	9	12.2	34	45.9	29	39.2	0.045
Black	34	25.6	3	8.8	2	5.9	16	47.1	13	38.2
Brown skin color/ “mestizo”	25	18.8	1	4.0	1	4.0	8	32.0	15	60.0
Marital status
Single	94	70.7	4	4.3	11	11.7	40	42.5	39	41.5	0.942
Married/stable relationship	26	19.5	2	7.7	1	3.8	13	50.0	10	38.5
Divorced/widowed	13	9.8	0	0.0	0	0.0	5	38.5	8	61.5
Schooling
None	1	0.8	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	0.8	0.083
Elementary school	107	80.4	6	5.6	7	6.5	45	42.1	49	45.8
High school and technical education	21	15.8	0	0.0	4	19.1	11	52.4	6	28.6
Higher education	4	3.0	0	0.0	1	25.0	2	50.0	1	25.0
Family income (in monthly minimum wages - MMW)
No income/<1 MMW^b	43	32.3	3	7.0	0	0.0	17	39.5	23	53.5	0.304
1-2 MMW^b	46	34.6	3	6.5	5	10.9	21	45.6	17	37.0
>2 MMW^b	44	33.1	0	0.0	7	15.9	20	45.5	17	38.6
Occupation
Unemployed	43	32.3	3	7.0	5	11.6	15	34.9	20	46.5	0.863
Formal employment	20	15.0	1	5.0	1	5.0	11	55.0	7	35.0
Informal employment	38	28.6	0	0.0	3	7.9	18	47.4	17	44.7
Self-employed worker	32	24.1	2	6.2	3	9.4	14	43.8	13	40.6
Health problems
No	80	60.2	4	5.0	7	8.8	34	42.5	35	43.7	0.674
Yes	53	39.8	2	3.8	5	9.4	24	45.3	22	41.5	0.674
Common mental disorder (estimated by SRQ-20^c)
Negative	75	56.4	4	5.3	9	12.0	39	52.0	23	30.7	0.014
Positive	58	43.6	2	3.4	3	5.2	19	32.8	34	58.6	0.014

Variables	Total		Craving level								P-value^a
	Total		Minimum 0-11		Mild 12-16		Moderate 17-22		Severe ≥23
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Have children
No	41	31.1	0	0.0	3	7.3	25	61.0	13	31.7	0.045
Yes	91	68.9	6	6.6	9	9.9	32	35.2	44	48.3
Events in the last year
Divorce/separation	34	25.6	4	11.8	1	2.9	14	41.2	15	44.1	0.040
Imprisonment or problems with the Law	51	38.4	0	0.0	5	9.8	15	29.4	31	60.8	0.305
Change in financial condition	58	43.6	1	1.7	6	10.3	27	46.6	24	41.4	0.239
Practiced violent act	37	27.8	2	5.4	1	2.7	13	35.1	21	56.8	0.029
Suffered violent act	45	33.8	2	4.4	3	6.7	18	40.0	22	48.9	0.345
Suffered sexual violence	4	3.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	50.0	2	50.0	0.840
Time of use (in years)
<1	2	1.5	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	100	0	0.0	0.262
1-5	50	37.9	1	2.0	4	8.0	24	48.0	21	42.0
6-10	61	46.2	3	4.9	6	9.8	25	41.0	27	44.3
≥11	19	14.4	2	10.5	2	10.5	6	31.6	9	47.4
Pattern of use
Mild	45	37.5	4	8.9	4	8.9	21	46.7	16	35.5	0.565
Moderate	10	8.3	0	0.0	2	20.0	6	60.0	2	20.0
Heavy	65	54.2	1	1.5	4	6.2	23	35.4	37	56.9
Use with other drugs
No	47	35.3	4	8.5	6	12.8	20	42.6	17	36.2	0.774
Yes	86	64.7	2	2.3	6	7.0	38	44.2	40	46.5	0.774
Number of psychoactive substances used on the same day (n=86)
1	26	30.2	1	3.8	2	7.7	16	61.5	7	26.9	0.042
2-3	39	45.4	1	2.6	4	10.3	15	38.5	19	48.7
≥4	21	24.4	0	0.0	0	0.0	7	33.3	14	66.7

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[TFN5] a) Chi-square test for linear trend.

[TFN6] b) MMW: monthly minimum wage was BRL 622.00 in 2012.

[TFN7] c) SRQ-20: Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20, with 20 questions.

Craving in crack cocaine users according to individual and behavioral characteristics*

Craving in crack cocaine users according to individual and behavioral characteristics^*