A new brief opioid stigma scale to assess perceived public attitudes and internalized stigma: Evidence for construct validity.

ABSTRACT: One key strategy to improve treatment access for persons with opioid use disorder (OUD) is overcoming stigma that is internalized by such individuals. Because few theoretically-derived, multidimensional measures of substance abuse stigma exist, we contribute a brief, theoretically-based measure of opioid-related stigma (adapted from Corrigan's Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale) to assess perceived stigma and internalized stigma among individuals with OUD. This study presents initial validation of the newly-developed Brief Opioid Stigma Scale among 387 adults who entered an inpatient opioid managed-withdrawal program. The scale assesses: (1) Stereotype awareness ("Aware"), or the extent to which individuals who use opioids perceive community members to believe OUD-related stereotypes; (2)

SUBMITTER: Yang LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6716158 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature