ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2023
What's in a Name? Terminology Preferences Among Patients Receiving Methadone Treatment.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 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
4 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- "There's a lot of people who love them, so why call 'em junkies?": clinician and patient perspectives about words used to describe people who use drugs.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- Language preferences and impact of labels on the lived experience of people who use heroin.Drugs (Abingdon, England) · 2024Article
- A Quantitative Examination of Illness Models Among People With Opioid Use Disorder Receiving Methadone Treatment.Journal of addiction medicineArticle
- Correlates of Perceived Discrimination Related to Substance Use Disorders Among Patients in Methadone Maintenance Treatment.Journal of psychoactive drugsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite recognition of the importance of substance use disorder (SUD) terminology, few studies examine terminology preferences among patients with SUDs.
objectiveTo examine preferences of patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) concerning the terminology used by addiction counselors.
designFrom January 1, 2019, to February 28, 2020, participants were recruited consecutively from 30-day treatment review sessions at outpatient methadone treatment programs in the Northeastern United States to complete a cross-sectional survey.
participantsParticipants were English-speaking adult patients with OUD enrolled in methadone treatment. MAIN MEASURES: Participants completed 7-point Likert-type scales from 1 ("Strongly Disagree") to 7 ("Strongly Agree") to rate their preferences for (a) the presenting problem, (b) collective nouns referring to those with the presenting problem, and (c) personal descriptors. We used univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to examine the associations between demographics (i.e., age, sex, and race) and terminology preferences and ordinal logit regression to explore the association between 12-step program partiality and preference for the term "addict." KEY
resultsWe surveyed 450 patients with mean age of 38.5 (SD = 11.1) years; 59.6% self-identified as male, 77.6% as White, and 12.7% as Hispanic. The highest-rated preferences for presenting problem were "addiction," "substance use," and "substance abuse." The highest-rated collective noun terms were "client," "patient," and "guest." "Person with an addiction," "person with substance use disorder," and "substance-dependent person" were the highest-rated personal descriptors. There were significant differences in terminological preference based on race and age. Twelve-step program partiality was associated with greater preference for the term "addict" (F = 21.22, p < .001).
conclusionsTerminology preferences among people receiving methadone treatment aligned with existing guidelines recommending that clinicians use medically accurate and destigmatizing terminology when referring to substance use disorders and the persons who have them. Demographic differences emerged in terminological preferences, warranting further examination.
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.