Traumatic Stress due to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Persons Experiencing Substance Use Disorders: Implementation of the Impact Event Scale with Modifications for COVID-19 (IES-COVID-19) (PID109)

1.30pm – 2.15pm EDT, 27 October 2022 ‐ 45 mins

Parallel Workshops

The global infectious disease outbreak of COVID-19 can be considered a traumatic event. The required quarantine and social distancing protocols may induce traumatic stress in persons experiencing substance use disorders (SUD) which may lead to prescription drug misuse, returning to drug use after a period of remission, and an increased risk for overdose death.
A prevention strategy for persons at risk for overdose includes integrating a screening for traumatic stress into the medical history inquiry. An urban Maryland (USA) outpatient SUD program implemented a 13-week quality improvement project to screen adult clients for traumatic stress symptoms related to the pandemic using the Impact Event Scale with Modifications for COVID-19 during the intake assessment. The results of this project suggest that screening for traumatic stress as an added prevention strategy proves useful in early identification of trauma-related stress disorders in persons experiencing substance use disorders.