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Background: Recovery from substance use disorder requires sustained effort and perseverance. Hence, the resilience factor of grit may be important for people in recovery. Little research has been conducted on grit in patients with substance use disorder (SUD), especially in a large and varied sample. Objectives: To analyze the psychometric properties of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) in patients with SUD and to use demographic and clinical characteristics to predict variance in Grit-S scores. Methods: Participants completed the Grit-S and other self-report measures. Psychometric properties of the Grit-S were assessed in outpatients ( N  = 94, 77.7% male) and a hierarchical regression predicted Grit-S variance in inpatients ( N  = 1238, 65.0% male). Results: The Grit-S demonstrated good internal consistency (α=.75) and strong test-retest reliability (adjusted r  = .79, p  < .001). Mean Grit-S score was 3.15, lower than other clinical samples reported in the literature. Regression modeling indicated a moderate, statistically significant association between demographic and clinical characteristics and Grit-S scores (R 2  = 15.5%, p  < .001). Of particular interest, the positive factor of recovery protection showed the strongest association with Grit-S of all variables assessed (β=.185 vs. β = .052-.175 for the remaining significant independent variables). Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the Grit-S in patients with SUD support its use in this population. Moreover, the particularly low grit scores among inpatients with SUDs and the association of grit scores with substance use risk and recovery factors suggest that grit could be useful as a treatment target in this population.

Background: Coping with pain is a commonly reported motive for opioid misuse. Opioids also provide relief of stress and negative affect and thus are often misused to cope with these emotional states. Although several studies have investigated coping motives in people who misuse opioids, it remains unclear whether pain coping and negative affect coping are distinct or overlapping motives for misuse. Objectives: In this study, we examined opioid use motives (enhancement, social, negative affect coping, and pain coping) in a sample of 52 adults seeking treatment for opioid use disorder. We used an adaptation of the Drug Use Motives Questionnaire that included an additional 5 items to assess pain coping motives for use. Results: Results indicated that pain coping was not significantly associated with other motives for use, including negative affect coping. Pain coping motives were strongly correlated with both pain severity (r = .51) and pain interference (r = .39), but not anxiety severity. Conversely, negative affect coping motives were strongly correlated with anxiety severity (r = .45), but not pain severity or interference. Conclusions: These results suggest that pain coping motives may be distinct from negative affect coping motives and should be assessed separately.