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EVALUATION OF INTERNET AS TREATMENT SUPPORT FOR METHAMPHETAMINE USERS IN RECOVERY

Gopika Chandra, MD, PhD, MPH, Edward Mensah, PhD, Thomas M. Lyons, PhD, Rebecca Roberts, MD, Elizabeth Calhoun, PhD, Wayne Wiebel, PhD and Jacek L. Ubaka, MD, MPH

University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL

Special thanks to Darrell Wehmeier, who made this study possible on www.kci.org

The Internet has begun to provide community for persons suffering from many conditions. Involvement with people facing a similar problem is a core component of health-related social support. We report the results of the study that assessed whether the Internet has a role in treatment support for meth users in recovery and provides social support to family and friends of meth users. A total of 245 meth users and 204 family/friends of meth users partially or entirely completed the survey. Overall, mean age of meth user was 37.4 years, 66.5% were females, and 85.1% were Caucasian. The male to female ratio is 1:2 indicating a higher predominance of female meth users compared with male meth users in this study population. Mean age of family/friends of meth users was 42 years, 61% were females, and 63% were Caucasian. Our findings show predominance of White meth users globally.Study participants existed in different stages of recovery. We found that 53% meth users had attended social support meetings for treatment of meth use. Meth users attending social support meetings at least 1-2 times per month or once every week had higher recovery stage than meth users attending meetings every several months. Meth users who last used meth at greater than 6 months had higher recovery stage compared with meth users with last meth use less than 6 months ago.

Most meth users (~79%) reported visiting www.kci.org less than 5 times a week. Most meth users (66%) and family/friends of meth users (64%) reported spending less than 1 hour per day on drug recovery websites. Thirty eight percent of meth users and 43% of family/friends of meth users reported visiting other drug recovery online websites.

Most meth users (46%) felt that family and friends assisted in their recovery followed by preference for support group meetings (18%), Internet (11%), and inpatient and outpatient treatment (7.4%), respectively. These findings again highlight the importance of developing a social support frame-work during drug use recovery. A total of 85% meth users agreed that Internet provides help during recovery from meth use. Message board was reported to be the most helpful online tool for social support during recovery (meth users, 55% versus family/friend of meth user, 63%, respectively).

Our study findings suggest that social support meetings are effective for sustained recovery and online support is an effective treatment support technology for meth users. It is plausible that online social support will fill the gap when professional help is inaccessible and a social support meeting is unavailable. Our recommendation is to provide KCI members with a strategy to utilize online resources on www.kci.org to achieve best results during recovery process. We recommend spending at least 1-2 hours/day on www.kci.org and visit at least greater than 5 times a week. Future research must be focused on developing strategies to increase attendance at social support meetings, which will further help sustained abstinence from drug abuse and further investigate the role of Internet in treatment support compared with other interventions.

Link to longer draft version with graphics.