Care and shared care of opiate misusers by general practitioners in inner London

Abstract

General practitioner (GP) involvement with people misusing opiates has been encouraged in UK Government policy for more than a decade. This paper reports the findings of an inner London drugs service postal questionnaire, conducted in the spring of 1995 to gather data regarding GP care and shared care of opiate misusers. The findings indicated that GPs provide a range of care for opiate misusers, and that those GPs who had received specialist training were more likely to offer methadone maintenance treatment. Fear of violence and concern for other patients were found to be the factors that most influenced involvement with opiate misusers.