Laserfiche WebLink
61% of users were women, and 90% were white. About 6% <br />reported being multiracial, 1.5% reported being Native <br />American or Hawaiian, 0.5% reported being Asian and 0.4% <br />said they were African American. Participants were an <br />average age of 40. About 84% of participants reported <br />having at least some college education. <br />Of these participants, 91% reported taking kratom to <br />alleviate pain on average a couple times a day for back, <br />shoulder and knee pain, 67% for anxiety and 65% for <br />depression. About 41% of survey responders said they took <br />kratom to treat opioid withdrawal, and of those people who <br />took it for opioid withdrawal, 35% reported going more than <br />a year without taking prescription opioids or heroin. <br />As part of the survey, participants completed a Substance <br />Use Disorder Symptom checklist to assess whether their use <br />qualified as a substance use disorder according to the <br />American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical <br />Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition guidelines. Fewer <br />than 3% of responses met the criteria for moderate or <br />severe substance use disorder for abusing kratom, but about <br />13% met some criteria for kratom-related substance use <br />disorder. This is comparable to about 8%-12% of people <br />prescribed opioid medications who became dependent, <br />according to statistics from the U.S. National Institute for <br />Drug Abuse (NIDA). <br />