New Study Finds Link Between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Opioid Use Disorder With A Lack of Patient Provider Alliance
Date Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2024
Pregnant individuals with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and probable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have worse patient-provider alliances than non-OUD patients. This was discovered by a recent study conducted by Kimberly Yonkers, M.D., Katz Family Chair of the Department of Psychiatry along with Molly Doernberg, M.P.H. (Yale School of Medicine), Ariadna Forray, M.D. and Kathryn Gilstad‐Hayden, Ph.D (Yale School of Medicine Psychiatry Department).
PTSD and OUD are known to contribute to adverse health conditions for both the pregnant individuals and their fetuses including anxiety, depression, pre-term delivery, longer hospital stays and even suicide. Improving the practitioner to patient relationship is crucial to overcoming these adverse health risks.
The results also revealed that the risk of PTSD was higher among non-white individuals, and highlights the need for trauma-informed care in treating prenatal individuals. The study states that “trauma‐informed care is defined as the assessment and potential modification of services to include an understanding of how trauma—including racism, discrimination, and oppression—impacts the person seeking the services.”
The researchers used funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Project Program Award to study 119 patients. The patients were enrolled in the Support Models for Addiction Related Treatment trial.
The PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition was used to determine probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and provider–patient relationship was assessed using the Kim Alliance Scale (KAS).