ArticleSubstance abuse : research and treatment2022
For Better or Worse: Self-reported Changes in Kratom and Other Substance Use as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Article in Substance abuse : research and treatment, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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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
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Latent Classes of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Adult Substance-use Problems and Psychosocial Outcomes: Complex and Heterogeneous Associations.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2026Article
- A Review of Kratom Product Evolution and Its Associated Health Outcomes.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2026Review
- Clinically characterizing adults who use kava or kratom: Substance use disorder assessment challenges for increasingly popular botanical products.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- Controversies in Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Kratom Use Disorder.Current psychiatry reports · 2024Review
- Kratom's Emergence and Persistence Within the US Polydrug Epidemic.Current addiction reports · 2023Review
- Examining the paradoxical effects of kratom: a narrative inquiry.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Kratom (Indian journal of pharmacologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Kratom is taken to self-treat pain and symptoms of psychiatric disorders, including substance-use disorders (SUDs) and opioid withdrawal. Before COVID-19, kratom use was increasing in the US, however, there are few published data on whether that trend continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have affected kratom use in multiple ways. Aim: To examine COVID-19-related changes in kratom use and how these changes were experienced, relative to changes in other commonly used substances. Methods: Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, 2615 evaluable surveys were completed between September 2020 and March 2021. Responses from past-month and past-year kratom-using adults (N = 174) indicating changes for the better or worse were examined using generalized linear mixed effects models, and relevant open-text responses (n = 85) were thematically coded. Results: For kratom 33% (n = 58) reported a Covid-related increase and 24% (n = 42) reported a Covid-related decrease. Controlling for changes in amount used, alcohol (OR = 5.02), tobacco (OR = 4.72), and nonmedical opioid use (OR = 3.42) were all more likely to have changed for the worse, compared with kratom use. Relative to decreases in kratom use, decreases in alcohol (OR = 3.21) and tobacco (OR = 6.18) use were more likely to be changes for the better. Cannabis use was the only substance to display a probability lower than 50% of being a decrease for the better, and of the increases, cannabis use displayed the highest probability of being for the better. Conclusions: Increases in kratom and cannabis use were less likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the worse, and decreases in kratom and cannabis use were more likely than alcohol and tobacco to be reported as changes for the better. These findings indicate that people differently conceptualize their relationships with kratom and cannabis, compared to their relationships with alcohol and tobacco.
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Registered trials
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