Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Project – Full Written
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Committee Chair
Candice J. Rome
Abstract
It is difficult to turn on the news without hearing about the opioid epidemic or a recent opioid overdose. There is hope because there is a treatment to help prevent this epidemic. That treatment is known as medication-assisted therapy (MAT), where patients can present and, if they meet the criteria, can be given a prescription for buprenorphine/naloxone combination medication. Treatment with buprenorphine/naloxone has been shown to be highly effective treatment for substance use disorder (SUD). Even though it has been proven that this combination works, less than 20% of patients diagnosed with SUD present for treatment. This study focused on how patients diagnosed with SUD attending a MAT program perceive internalized stigma before and after an educational program on self-stigma. A combination of pre- and post-questionnaires and an educational program on combating self-stigma were presented. The results of the pre-test survey indicated that overall, internalized stigma was moderate, with a mean average of 2.41%. The post-survey results indicated that those surveyed remained in the moderate category with a mean average of 2.09%. This indicated that the educational program influenced the lowering of self-stigma but did not significantly lower scores, meaning more work is needed. If we are to combat the opioid crisis, practitioners must be aware and understand that patient's self-stigma has real-world effects which could lead to relapse, overdose, and possibly death.
Recommended Citation
Cox, Pamela, "A Review of the Effects of Different Types of Stigmas on the Retention Rates of Patients in Medication-Assisted Treatment and How to Combat the Problem" (2024). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 109.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/nursing-dnp/109
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License