Prevalence of psychiatric disorders among heroin users who received methadone maintenance therapy in Taiwan.
BACKGROUND
Many patients under methadone maintenance treatment are present with comorbid psychiatric symptoms.


OBJECTIVE
We wish to examine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among heroin users who received methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) in Taiwan.


METHODS
By combining the National Health Insurance Research database and Center for Disease Control database, 18,271 heroin users who received MMT were defined as the subject group and after matching age and sex, 73,084 patients were randomly selected as the control group.


RESULTS
The 1 year prevalence of any psychiatric disorder, any psychotic disorder, neurotic and other nonpsychotic disorder among MMT patients and control group were 13.14% versus 2.50% (OR 5.89, CI 5.53-6.27), 4.21% versus 1.29% (OR 3.38, CI 3.07-3.72), and 9.89% versus 1.31% (OR 8.25, CI 7.62-8.94), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of any co-morbid psychiatric disorder among MMT patients is almost six times higher than the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
A thorough psychiatric screening and appropriate aggressive intervention should be incorporated into an effective methadone treatment program.
Department of Health, Taoyuan Mental Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Chiung-Yueh
CY
Fan
Happy Kuy-Lok
HK
Tan
I-Chia
IC
Chien
Sun-Yuan
SY
Chou
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017831:Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry) / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D009294:Narcotics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D058850:Opiate Substitution Treatment / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
D009294:Narcotics; D008691:Methadone