Managing Opioid Addiction in Adolescents in the Community: Experiences from Two Cases

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescent opioid use in India has emerged as a critical public health concern, with a 2018 survey revealing 1.8% of adolescents aged 10–17 years as past-year opioid users. We present here the experiences of two cases of adolescent opioid users from a community-based drug treatment clinic in Delhi. Case Description: Case 1 involved a 17-year-old male suffering from opioid and tobacco dependence. His treatment, starting about 3 years back, showcased challenges in withdrawal management, leading to successful opioid agonist treatment (OAT), employment, and positive social reintegration over follow-up. Case 2 was a 15-year-old male with opioid, cannabis, tobacco, and volatile solvent dependence who presented about 2.5 years back to us. Despite treatment initiation in February 2021 and positive strides in OAT, employment, and cessation of injecting drug use, challenges persisted, highlighting the necessity for effective tailored interventions in managing substance use disorder in adolescents. Conclusion: Adolescent opioid use disorder can be managed in the community with OAT, though challenges of dropout do remain.

Keywords

• agonist
• detoxification
• substitution