Discriminative Characteristics of Marginalised Novel Psychoactive Users : a Transnational Study

Felvinczi, Katalin and Benschop, Annemieke and Urbán, Róbert and Van Hout, Marie Claire and Dąbrowska, Katarzyna and Hearne, Evelyn and Henriques, Susana and Kaló, Zsuzsa and Kamphausen, Gerrit and Silva, Joana Paula and Wieczorek, Łukasz and Werse, Bernd and Bujalski, Michal and Demetrovics, Zsolt and Korf, Dirk (2020) Discriminative Characteristics of Marginalised Novel Psychoactive Users : a Transnational Study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 18 (4). pp. 1128-1147. ISSN 1557-1874

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Abstract

New psychoactive substances (NPS) continue to be considered as a major public health concern in many European countries. The study was implemented within the framework of a transnational project of six European countries (Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal). Our aim here is to report on the distinct and differentiating characteristics of marginalised NPS users. Three subgroups of a total of 3023 adult NPS users (socially marginalised, night life, online community) were examined regarding their socio-demographic characteristics, substance use, and external motives towards NPS use. Poland and Hungary reported higher rates of NPS use in comparison to traditional controlled drugs. The external/contextual motives did not play a central role in the background of NPS use, the least important motives were alleged legality and non-detectability of these substances. Marginalised (defined as those accessing low threshold harm reduction services) users’ substance use patterns are different from the other two groups in terms of showing more intense and riskier drug use. The most important variables which contributed to be categorised as a marginalised NPS user were lower level education, being older, having an unfavourable labour market position and using drugs intravenously. Contextual motives did not play a decisive role in being categorised as a marginalised user when drug use pattern was controlled. These identified discriminative features of marginalised drug users should inform policy makers to develop and implement tailor-made interventions targeting this user group to successfully tackle the elevated public health concerns associated with NPS use.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: This study was supported by the European Union (New Psychoactive Substances: transnational project on different user groups, user characteristics, extent and patterns of use, market dynamics, and best practices in prevention [HOME/2014/JDRU/AG/DRUG/7077]), the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Grant number: KKP126835), and the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities (ELTE Institutional Excellence Program, 783-3/2018/FEKUTSRAT). The study was also supported for the realisation of this international co-financed science project in 2016-2017 by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The funding institutions had no role in the study design or the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2738
Departments or Groups:
Depositing User:	Admin SSL
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2022 23:11
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2023 01:40
URI:	http://repository-testing.wit.ie/id/eprint/4576

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