Consistent adherence to guidelines improves opioid dependent patients' first year outcomes.
Clinical practice guidelines for opioid substitution treatment (OST) for opioid dependence recommend that patients receive at least 60 mg daily methadone and have access to a broad array of psychosocial services. However, there is still wide variation in clinical practice in OST clinics. In real-world settings, patients could receive lower methadone doses and less psychosocial care because they require less intensive care for recovery; alternatively, barriers to delivery of guideline concordant care could limit treatment received and impair recovery. The Multisite Opioid Substitution Treatment (MOST) study examines the impact of more consistent adherence to guideline recommendations in eight Veterans Affairs OST clinics. While patients at all clinics demonstrated improvements in substance use over the first year in treatment, patients at clinics that more consistently adhered to guidelines had greater reductions in heroin and cocaine use and greater improvement in mental health. These results suggest that efforts to increase guideline adherence in OST will improve patient outcomes.
Trafton
Jodie A
JA
Center for Health Care Evaluation, Veterans Affairs and Stanford University Medical Centers, 795 Willow Road (152-MPD), Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. Jodie.Trafton@va.gov
Humphreys
Keith
K
Harris
Alex H S
AH
Oliva
Elizabeth
E
D000328:Adult; D002985:Clinical Protocols / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs