Abstract
Background: One of the most important treatment modalities for SCD patients is opioid drugs. These drugs have been the mainstay of treatment for patients with sickle cell disease especially when they are having vaso-occlusive sickle cell crisis. However, opioids are known to have a pleasurable effect on the patients in which may cause many patients of SCD continue to demand those medications. As a result, if the patient takes unnecessary doses of opioids on a regular basis, that may lead to undesirable side effects like opioid dependence or addiction.
Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in AlAhsa, which focuses on perception of Saudi patients with sickle cell disease towards opioid drugs using self-administrated questionnaires from February 2018 to July 2018. The data were analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences [SPSS] version 21. All categorical variables presented in this study had been summarized by using numbers and percentages. The analyses measure the association between socio-demographic and other related variables in the survey by using chi-square test. Regression analysis had been conducted as well where Odds ratio and 95% CI were also being reported for the risk factor of the dependent variables versus socio demographic characteristics of the SCD patients.
Results: A total of 309 SCD patients were involved in this study. Of the 309 patients, 175 [56.6%] of them were females and 134 [43.4%] were males. Age range was from 10 -60 years old. The prevalence of perception of SCD patients toward opioid drugs revealed, 218 [70.6%] with good perception and 91 [29.4%] with poor perception. Binary logistics regression revealed that sickle cell group is likely to have significant effect on good perception [odds ratio 0.084, p-0.002] where carriers were likely to have 92% decline to be in good perception compared SCD patient. Family history of sickle cell anemia also shows significant influence [odds ratio 0.462, p-0.015] where negative group were having 54% decreases to be in the good perception compared to positive group.
Conclusion: The prevalence of good perception toward opioid drug utilization in this study was relatively high as opposed to poor perception. However, perception of patients about the symptoms of drug dependency was deemed moderate which was necessary to address given the different diseases attributed to the continuous usage of opioid medications.