Barriers and Facilitators to Substance Use Disorder Treatment: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Ali Farhoudian; Emran Razaghi; Zahra Hooshyari; Alireza Noroozi; Azam Pilevari; Azarakhsh Mokri; Mohammad Reza Mohammadi; Mohsen Malekinejad

doi:10.1177/11782218221118462

Barriers and Facilitators to Substance Use Disorder Treatment: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Subst Abuse. 2022 Aug 29:16:11782218221118462. doi: 10.1177/11782218221118462. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ali Farhoudian¹, Emran Razaghi¹, Zahra Hooshyari², Alireza Noroozi³, Azam Pilevari⁴, Azarakhsh Mokri¹, Mohammad Reza Mohammadi^{1

5}, Mohsen Malekinejad⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Geriatric Medicine, Ziaeian Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.
³ Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies (INCAS), Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Sociology, Kharazmi University, Karaj, Iran.
⁵ Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Abstract

objective: This investigation explored the barriers and facilitators to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment in the integrated paradigm.

methods: A search technique for barriers and facilitators of SUD treatment was applied to the PubMed and Web of Science databases to identify relevant systematic reviews. The eligibility criteria included systematic review (SR) or SR plus meta-analysis (MA) articles published before the end of 2021, human research, and the English language. Each of the 12 relevant review articles met the inclusion criteria. AMSTAR was utilised to evaluate the methodological quality of the systematic reviews.

results: Two authors analysed 12 SR/SR-MA articles to identify barriers or facilitators of SUD treatment. The cumulative summary results of these 12 evaluations revealed that barriers and facilitators may be classified into 3 levels: individual, social and structural. By analysing these review papers, 37 structural barriers, 21 individual barriers and 19 social barriers were uncovered, along with 15 structural facilitators, 9 social facilitators and 3 individual facilitators.

conclusions: The majority of barriers indicated in the review articles included in this analysis are structural, as are the majority of facilitators. Consequently, the design of macro models for the treatment of substance use disorders may yield various outcomes and potentially affect society and individual levels.

Keywords: Barrier; facilitator; review; substance use disorder; treatment.

Publication types

Review