ReviewHealth promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice2022
Patterns and motivations of polysubstance use: a rapid review of the qualitative evidence.
Review in Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed.
- Examining use of telehealth in jails: linking women to community OUD services.BMC women's health · 2024Trial
- Higher prevalence of non-fatal overdose with opioid and stimulant use compared to use of opioids alone.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- An Epidemic of Complexity: Polysubstance Use Fatal Overdose Typologies Across Cook County, Illinois, Neighborhoods, 2017‒2022.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- A comparison of dual vs. single diagnostic code approaches for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome surveillance in neonates ≥ 35 weeks gestational age.BMC pediatrics · 2026Observational
- Questions on Medicines, Alcohol, and Illicit Drug Interactions in the Finnish AddictionLink Online Service: A Descriptive Analysis.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2026Article
- Polysubstance use in Canada: prevalence, patterns, and self-reported harms from the 2023 Canadian Substance Use Survey.BMC public health · 2026Article
- The Polysubstance Assessment Tool: Reliability, acceptability and feasibility of a novel measure of polysubstance use.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Natural language processing of patient in-session speech to predict brief motivational interviewing alcohol intervention response: an exploratory study.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2026Article
- Associations between cannabis use, cannabis use motivations and past year polysubstance use among people living with HIV in Florida.AIDS care · 2026Article
- Non-Medical Use of Prescription Stimulants in Australia: Prevalence, Sociodemographic and Substance Use Correlates From the 2022-2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Effects of repeated nalfurafine and VZTK35 treatments on fentanyl/cocaine mixture self-administration in a rat drug-vs.-food choice procedure.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Characterizing patterns of opioid and stimulant use by route and associations with non-fatal overdose and xylazine use in people who have injected drugs from Baltimore, MD, 2023-2024.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Deaths following illicit ketamine use in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 1999-2024: An update report to inform the reclassification debate.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Patterns of polysubstance use disorder among human trafficking survivors: A latent class analysis.Addictive behaviors · 2026Article
- Article
- Polysubstance use in early adulthood and associated factors in the Republic of Ireland: An analysis of a nationally representative cohort.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Peer research with populations of people who use street tablets in areas over-represented by drug-related harms in the UK: a case study.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Substances and substance combinations among accidental substance-related acute toxicity deaths (AATDs) in Canada from 2016 to 2017.BMC public health · 2025Article
- "It's just what's around these days": social and contextual pragmatism in substance transitions.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Knowledge user involvement is still uncommon in published rapid reviews-a meta-research cross-sectional study.Research synthesis methods · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPolysubstance use-the use of substances at the same time or close in time-is a common practice among people who use drugs. The recent rise in mortality and overdose associated with polysubstance use makes understanding current motivations underlying this pattern critical. The objective of this review was to synthesize current knowledge of the reasons for combining substances in a single defined episode of drug use.
methodsWe conducted a rapid review of the literature to identify empirical studies describing patterns and/or motivations for polysubstance use. Included studies were published between 2010 and 2021 and identified using MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and Google Scholar.
resultsWe included 13 qualitative or mixed-method studies in our analysis. Substances were combined sequentially to alleviate withdrawal symptoms or prolong a state of euphoria ("high"). Simultaneous use was motivated by an intention to counteract or balance the effect(s) of a substance with those of another, enhance a high or reduce overall use, and to mimic the effect of another unavailable or more expensive substance. Self-medication for a pre-existing condition was also the intention behind sequential or simultaneous use.
conclusionPolysubstance use is often motivated by a desire to improve the experience based on expected effects of combinations. A better understanding of the reasons underlying substance combination are needed to mitigate the impact of the current overdose crisis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.