title: From methadone to buprenorphine: changes during a 10 year period within a national opioid maintenance treatment programme.
abstract: Opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) is the most widely used treatment for opioid dependence. Maintenance programmes differ in various aspects and may also change over time. This paper investigates the changes in treatment practices within a national OMT programme during a 10 year period (2002-2011), especially with regard to the prescribing of methadone and buprenorphine. Data (n=34,001) were collected by annual assessments questionnaires. In 2002, only 16% of the OMT patients received buprenorphine as their maintenance medication. By 2011 this percentage had increased significantly (p<.001) to 50.3%. In the same period the number of patients more than tripled (from 1,984 to 6,640, p<.001), and programme attrition rates decreased (p=.020). This relatively rapid shift is a part of the increasing reliance of addiction medicine upon a range of medications administered by different routes which has not been previously charted within a national treatment programme.
authors.affiliation: SERAF - Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Institute of Clinical Medicine, 0315 Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: marianne.riksheim@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riksheim
authors.affiliation: SERAF - Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Institute of Clinical Medicine, 0315 Oslo, Norway; National Addiction Centre, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, SE5 8AF London, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gossop
authors.affiliation: SERAF - Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Institute of Clinical Medicine, 0315 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Clausen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D002047:Buprenorphine; D008691:Methadone
keywords: Buprenorphine; Maintenance treatment; Methadone; Norway; Programme attrition