Cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with opioid use disorder: A randomized controlled trial^*

* T. Rezapour and H. Ekhtiari developed the study concept. All authors contributed to the study design. Testing and data collection were performed by T. Rezapour, H. Ekhtiari, A. Samiei and R. Daneshmand and T. Rezapour performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of J. Hatami, A. Farhoudian and H. Ekhtiari. T. Rezapour and H. Ekhtiari drafted the manuscript, and J. Hatami, A. Farhoudian, M. Sofuoglu and A. Noroozi provided critical revisions. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

ABSTRACT

Aim: To examine the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation treatment (CRT) for people with opioid use disorder who were recruited into a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programme.

Method: 120 male subjects were randomly assigned to (1) MMT plus CRT in two months or (2) MMT plus a control intervention. Subjects were assessed at the beginning, mid-point and post-intervention as well as at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-up time points.

Results: Analysis with repeated measure ANOVA showed that the CRT group performed significantly better in tests of learning, switching, processing speed, working memory and memory span. Moreover, the CRT group had significantly lower opiate use over the control group during 3-months follow-up. Analysis including only those with a history of methamphetamine use showed that the CRT group had significantly lower amphetamine use. No group differences were observed for treatment retention.

Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that adding CRT as an adjunct intervention to MMT can improve cognitive performance as well as abstinence from both opiates and stimulants.

KEYWORDS:

• Opioid
• Methadone maintenance treatment
• Cognitive rehabilitation
• Abstinence
• Retention

Acknowledgements

TR and AF have received supports from the Cognitive Science and Technologies Council (CSTC) of Iran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) for the ongoing Clinical Trial with NECOREDA. HE has received funds from Tehran University of Medical Sciences for the development of NECOREDA.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no competing interests as defined by Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Journal Group, or other interests that might be perceived to influence the results and/or discussion reported in this article. The authors confirmed that no observations were excluded, all independent variables or manipulations, whether successful or failed, have been reported in the Methods section and all dependent variables or measures that were analysed for this article’s target research question have been reported in the Methods section.

Clinical trial registration code: IRCT2015090123849N1 submitted at Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (http://www.irct.ir/)

Notes

* T. Rezapour and H. Ekhtiari developed the study concept. All authors contributed to the study design. Testing and data collection were performed by T. Rezapour, H. Ekhtiari, A. Samiei and R. Daneshmand and T. Rezapour performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of J. Hatami, A. Farhoudian and H. Ekhtiari. T. Rezapour and H. Ekhtiari drafted the manuscript, and J. Hatami, A. Farhoudian, M. Sofuoglu and A. Noroozi provided critical revisions. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Additional information

Funding

This trial was funded by the Cognitive Science and Technologies Council (CSTC) of Iran.