"There's a lot of people who love them, so why call 'em junkies?": clinician and patient perspectives about words used to describe people who use drugs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is increasing attention in clinician care to the importance of using person-first language. Clinicians' words can reinforce clinicians' pre-existing stigmas and biases. People who use drugs (PWUD) continue to face stigma from clinicians. Person-first language is a way to reduce stigma and perpetuation of bias.

Methods

Through specific structured in-person interviews, we examined the usage of stigmatizing language in the care of PWUD by surveying key clinicians- such as physicians, nurses, and social workers-and patients who self-identified as PWUD at Tufts Medical Center (Boston, MA) between July 2022-September 2022. Interview guides were created using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) 2.0 as a framework. We evaluated perceptions

SUBMITTER: Sundaram G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12403917 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature