Rogers Jeffrey M, Smith Kirsten E, Schriefer Destiny, Epstein David H
National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD, USA.
San Diego State University/University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA.
Subst Abuse. 2022 Sep 28;16:11782218221123977. doi: 10.1177/11782218221123977. eCollection 2022.
Kratom is taken to self-treat pain and symptoms of psychiatric disorders, including substance-use disorders (SUDs) and opioid withdrawal. Before COVID-19, kratom use was increasing in the US, however, there are few published data on whether that trend continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have affected kratom use in multiple ways.
To examine COVID-19-related changes in kratom use and how these changes were experienced, relative to changes in other commonly used substances.
Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, 2615 evaluable surveys were completed between September 2020 and March 2021. Responses from past-month and past-year kratom-using adults (N = 174) indicating changes for the better or worse were examined using generalized linear mixed effects models, and relevant open-text responses (n = 85) were thematically coded.
For kratom 33% (n = 58) reported a Covid-related increase and 24% (n = 42) reported a Covid-related decrease. Controlling for changes in amount used, alcohol (OR = 5.02), tobacco (OR = 4.72), and nonmedical opioid use (OR = 3.42) were all more likely to have changed for the worse, compared with kratom use. Relative to decreases in kratom use, decreases in alcohol (OR = 3.21) and tobacco (OR = 6.18) use were more likely to be changes for the better. Cannabis use was the only substance to display a probability lower than 50% of being a decrease for the better, and of the increases, cannabis use displayed the highest probability of being for the better.
Increases in kratom and cannabis use were less likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the worse, and decreases in kratom and cannabis use were more likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the better. These findings indicate that people differently conceptualize their relationships with kratom and cannabis, compared to their relationships with alcohol and tobacco.
人们使用 kratom 自我治疗疼痛及精神疾病症状，包括物质使用障碍（SUDs）和阿片类药物戒断症状。在 COVID-19 之前，美国 kratom 的使用量一直在增加，然而，关于在 COVID-19 大流行期间这一趋势是否持续的公开数据很少，而 COVID-19 大流行可能以多种方式影响了 kratom 的使用。
研究与 COVID-19 相关的 kratom 使用变化，以及相对于其他常用物质的变化，这些变化是如何被体验到的。
通过亚马逊土耳其机器人（Amazon Mechanical Turk），在 2020 年 9 月至 2021 年 3 月期间完成了 2615 份可评估的调查问卷。使用广义线性混合效应模型对过去一个月和过去一年使用 kratom 的成年人（N = 174）中表明情况变好或变差的回答进行了分析，并对相关的开放式文本回答（n = 85）进行了主题编码。
对于 kratom，33%（n = 58）报告与 COVID-19 相关的使用量增加，24%（n = 42）报告与 COVID-19 相关的使用量减少。在控制使用量变化的情况下，与 kratom 使用相比，酒精（OR = 5.02）、烟草（OR = 4.72）和非医疗用阿片类药物使用（OR = 3.42）情况变差的可能性都更高。相对于 kratom 使用量的减少，酒精（OR = 3.21）和烟草（OR = 6.18）使用量的减少更有可能是情况变好。大麻使用是唯一一种被报告为情况变好的可能性低于 50%的物质，而在使用量增加方面，大麻使用被报告为情况变好的可能性最高。
与酒精和烟草相比，kratom 和大麻使用量增加被报告为情况变差的可能性较小，而 kratom 和大麻使用量减少被报告为情况变好的可能性比酒精和烟草更大。这些发现表明，与酒精和烟草相比，人们对他们与 kratom 和大麻的关系有不同的概念化理解。
