A systematic review of the socio-demographic, environmental and macroeconomic factors associated with opioid use disorder in Europe

Details

Supervisors

Tubeuf, Sandy

Faculty

Faculté de santé publique

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de la santé publique, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Content : The United States (US) has been experiencing for several years an epidemic of overdoses directly correlated to the abuse of opioid substances. This phenomenon is called the “opioid crisis” and refers to the significant increase in the use and misuse of prescribed opioids since the late 1990s. While some studies state that Europe does not face an opioid crisis similar to the US, an increase in the use of opioids is however observed in Europe. The purpose of this review is to identify systematically the socio-demographic, environmental and macroeconomic factors leading to disorders associated with the use of prescription opioid in the European context. Methods : A literature search was conducted between February and March 2023 on four different databases. Three of them are specialized health databases : Pubmed, Medline, Academic Search premier (the last two being gathered on EBSCOhost) ; and one is a specialized economics database : Econlit. Results : In total, 13 articles were included in the review. Unlike in the US, there is no “typical” profile of opioid user that emerges from the synthesis of studies included in this review. However, certain risk factors appear to be unanimous, and are both found in studies carried out in Europe and in the USA (like mental disorders, chronic pain, a low level of education or unemployment). The biggest differences between Europe and the US lie in environmental and macro-economic risk factors. Conclusion : Due to the lack of information on the profiles of opioid users in Europe and the lack of research into consumption trends, it is not yet possible to determine whether Europe faces an opioid crisis. Although some factors appear to be quite similar, the analysis of environmental and macro-economic factors highlights the many differences between Europe and the US.