131
Views
61
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Article

Treatment Process and Relapse to Opioid Use During Methadone Maintenance

, &
Pages 173-197 | Published online: 07 Jul 2009
 

Abstract

A general framework for studying drug abuse treatment process factors is presented, and components are then used to predict relapse to opioid use during treatment in methadone maintenance. Major domains of the treatment process research framework include client variables at entry, program characteristics, treatment events, and client outcomes. The analyses rely on the use of proportional hazards models to identify significant outcome predictors in a sample of 590 methadone maintenance clients from 21 clinics in the Research Triangle Institute/Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (RTI/TOPS) data system who remained in treatment at least 3 months. The analyses were performed on the total sample and separately on clients from three groups of clinics classified on the basis of the distribution of client relapse rates and tenure in treatment. Relapse rates were related to dosage level, client monitoring with urinalyses, and methadone take-home privileges in some clinics, and hence, these time-varying treatment events were important factors in treatment outcomes. Even at entry to treatment, some measures were found to be related to how the client later performed during treatment. Finally, it was also found that the particular area of professional specialty of the staff making client diagnosis at intake and preparing treatment plans was associated with client outcomes.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.