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Identifier

000419719

Title

Χρόνια σε χαμηλή δόση υποκατάστατου : το βίωμα ανθρώπων από το λίγο στο καθόλου

Alternative Title

The stork's suspended step: from a placebo buprenorphine dosage to abstinence and recovery

Author

Παλούση, Αικατερίνη

Thesis advisor

Τριλίβα, Σοφία

Reviewer

Γιακουμάκη Στυλιανή
Αυδή Ευρυνόμη

Abstract

The research presented in this thesis focuses on the lived experience of people on opioid substitution programmes in the Greek Organization Against Drugs (OKANA) in Athens. The participants were in treatment over a long period on an extremely low dosage of buprenorphine. This research aimed to gain in-depth accounts of the lived experience of people on low maintenance and how they understand their long-term stay on drug substitutes. Seven semi-structured interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) procedures were used to analyse the interview data and to explore how opioid-addicted individuals described their lives before and during the maintenance program. Three superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: (1) moving on from the chaos of usage to the reality of substitution; (2) the substitution programme, a productive constraint; and (3) the future as a prolonged present. The participants described their participation in the drug substitution programme as a ‘rescue solution', as it marked the departure from ‘chaos’ and the passage to a refuge. The participants’ accounts also underline the presence of contradictions and ambivalence in the way that they experience their long-term involvement in therapy. On the one hand, as they described how the programme covers their physical need for the substance, giving them a sense of an ‘almost normal self,' while, on the other hand, they narrate how they are ‘captive’ of the drug and their personal and the therapeutic programme’s limitations. Within this framework, the continuation of the lowest possible dose of the substitute was construed by participants as a ‘safety valve’ in order to be able to maintain in the least binding way the stability that substitution programme offers them. Future research would do well to focus on exploring people’s experiences in different phases of substitution therapy treatment.

Language

Greek

Subject

Addiction

Buprenorphine

Chronic addict

Formula stories

Harm reduction

Institutional identities

Substitution therapy

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