Efficacy of enhanced outreach counseling to reenroll high-risk drug users 1 year after discharge from treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Because discharged methadone maintenance patients represent a population at particularly high public health risk, the authors studied such patients 1 year after their discharge from a methadone program.


METHODS
The locations of 94 of 110 discharged patients were successfully determined 1 year after discharge. Nine (10%) of these patients had died, 37 (39%) were already reenrolled in treatment, and 7 (7%) did not require treatment. The 41 remaining subjects were randomly assigned to either the enhanced outreach counseling condition (N = 27) or a standard referral condition (N = 14).


RESULTS
Within 2 weeks following this intervention, 17 (63%) of the 27 patients in the enhanced outreach counseling program and one (7%) of the 14 patients not in the program had reenrolled in treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that enhanced outreach counseling may be an effective outreach strategy as well as a risk-reduction for discharged methadone maintenance patients.
Zanis
D A
DA
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
McLellan
A T
AT
Alterman
A I
AI
Cnaan
R A
RA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003376:Counseling; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D008691:Methadone