{"id":149047,"date":"2019-07-16T12:53:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T16:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=149047"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:20:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:20:49","slug":"what-to-call-someone-who-uses-heroin-their-name","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2019\/what-to-call-someone-who-uses-heroin-their-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Call Someone Who Uses Heroin? Their Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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July 16, 2019<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"Close-upIn an effort to combat stigma, many researchers and clinicians now use \u201cperson first\u201d terms such as \u201cperson with opioid use disorder\u201d instead of loaded labels like \u201caddict.\u201d But most of the research on the best language to use for this population has focused on the perspectives of treatment providers and the general public, and to a lesser extent on people in long-term recovery.<\/p>\n

Now, the first study to ask people who use heroin what they want to be called, co-authored by a School of Public Health researcher, finds that language preferences in this population vary by context and who is speaking.<\/p>\n

The study, published in the journal Addiction<\/em><\/a>, found that people entering treatment for heroin use most often called themselves \u201caddicts,\u201d but preferred that clinicians or researchers say \u201cperson who uses drugs.\u201d Nearly universally, they did not want to be referred to with slang terms such as \u201cjunkie,\u201d and many expressed dislike for language suggesting misuse or dependence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, researchers, clinicians, and families should not automatically use the same terms that people who use heroin call themselves, but instead should\u00a0ask<\/em> about preferences,\u201d says senior study author Michael Stein, professor and chair of health law, policy & management.\u00a0\u201cOf course, most people just want to be called by their name.”<\/p>\n

The researchers used data from 263 people who were undergoing in-patient evaluation and withdrawal symptom management at the Stanley Street Treatment and Resources program (SSTAR) in Fall River, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

In face-to-face interviews with non-treating staff, the study participants reported which labels they use to self-identify, and which labels they used to refer to themselves when talking with others who use drugs, with providers, with their families, and in 12-Step meetings. Then, they identified which labels they preferred least and most for others to use when referring to them.<\/p>\n

More than 70 percent of the participants reported using the term \u201caddict\u201d to describe themselves and when speaking with others, most commonly at 12-Step programs. However, fewer than half of the participants wanted others to call them \u201caddicts.\u201d Fewer than 15 percent reported using \u201cuser\u201d or slang terms such as \u201cjunkie\u201d in any context.<\/p>\n

The most-preferred label for others to call them was \u201cperson who uses drugs,\u201d while the labels that the most participants never wanted to be called were \u201cheroin misuser\u201d and \u201cheroin-dependent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPersons who use heroin often complain about interactions with healthcare providers, due at least in part to the unfortunate language providers use\u2014which is taken, sometimes rightly, as a sign of disrespect,\u201d Stein says. \u201cSuch antagonism can\u2019t be good for clinical outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this research will inform future work centering on the perspectives of individuals who use drugs, and begin to establish connections between the language that individuals use to describe themselves and treatment engagement,\u201d says the study\u2019s lead author, Ekaterina Pivovarova, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and faculty in the Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Specialty Courts.<\/p>\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People who use heroin prefer different terms depending on the speaker and context, with \u201cpeople first\u201d language often best, and language suggesting misuse or dependence generally worst. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":149057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1926,2250,2569,2038,2137,1735],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3531,3535,3540],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[2135],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/149047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149047"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/149047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173082,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/149047\/revisions\/173082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149047"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=149047"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=149047"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=149047"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=149047"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=149047"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=149047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}