Women in opioid maintenance treatment in Iran: Background characteristics and history of substance use and risk behaviors

Gender differences in substance use patterns and disorders among an Iranian patient sample receiving methadone maintenance treatment

“…Moreover, the history of injection, imprisonment, and drug use abstention were higher in men than in women. In this study, the 4% prevalence of injection history is absolutely in line with the results obtained by Hojjat et al ( 19 ), in the neighboring province. This is so while the recent injection method among MMT individuals in Tehran has been reported to be such that about 5% turn to heroin and methamphetamine injection most frequently ( 23 ).…”

“…Most of the male patients are single but the women are mostly married; the men have higher education than the women and 90% of the women have no income and home. The results of this study are consistent with the findings reported by Dolan et al ( 18 ), Hojjat et al ( 19 ), Zolala et al ( 21 ) regarding the women undergoing MMT in the capital of Iran, North Khorasan, and Kerman in the east of Iran. Low education and unemployment are considered as important factors in the prevalence of substance use, particularly in Iranian women ( 2 , 12 , 21 – 26 ).…”

“…The economic dependence of women on their husbands (90% without income) and the patriarchal structure of Iranian families create a situation wherein substance dependent husbands are more likely to orient their wives to substance dependence; this finding is in line with those of the study conducted by Eitle & Eitle ( 27 ). About 90% of the women begin drug abuse after marriage ( 19 ). Compared to addicted men, addicted women are more likely to have sexual partners that depend on substance use and tend to become familiar with opioid substance by an older man with whom they have a close intimate relationship ( 28 ).…”

“…Consistent with the findings of this study, men begin substance use earlier in adolescence and raise the dosage while women become dependent more rapidly after the beginning of the first use and quickly enter the treatment process ( 10 , 30 , 31 ). However, the age of the first experience of illicit substances in Europe and the United States was at teenage years and lower than that of Iran ( 26 , 32 – 35 ) in such a way that Iranian men experience the use of illicit substance in the early third decade of their life and women experience it in the late third decade of their life ( 2 , 18 , 19 , 23 ). In this study, opium, hashish, and alcohol were the first substances used by the male participants while opium ashes, opium, and heroin were the first substances tested by women.…”

“…Ziaaddini and Ziaaddini ( 16 ) reported that there is a significant difference between women and men in the consumption of hashish, opium, heroin, and sedatives. The conduct of studies on substance use disorders and patterns in the women referring to MMT clinics is experiencing an increasing trend ( 6 , 17 – 19 ); however, no such studies have been done on the difference in the prevalence of substance-related patterns and disorders between men and women in Iran. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the gender and prevalence differences in Substance Use Patterns and Disorders among the patents referring to MMT clinics for the treatment of opioid dependence in the largest and nearest eastern city of Iran to Afghanistan.…”