Tahereh Pashaei1, Maryam Moeeni2, Babak Roshanaei Moghdam3, Hassan Heydari4, Nigel E Turner5, Emran M Razaghi6. 1. Department of Public Health, School of Health, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran.Addiction Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. Health Management and Economics Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.Iranian Center of Excellence in Health Services Management, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. 3. Addiction Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 4. Assistant professor, Faculty of Management and Economics, TarbiatModares University, Tehran, Iran. 5. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada. 6. Department of Psychiatry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. razaghie@sina.tums.ac.ir.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: To identify correlates related to retention time of a cohort study of the opioid-dependent patients participating in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) program offered by a major addiction treatment clinic in Tehran, Iran between April 2007 and March 2011. METHODS: Several parametric Survival models assuming Weibull, Log-normal and Log-logistic distributions were compared to search for association between covariates and risk of relapse and dropping out of treatment among 198 patient participants. RESULTS: According to Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Log-normal model had the best fitting. Estimates of this model indicated that increase in average methadone dosage was associated with longer retention time. Correlates associated with shorter retention time were suffering from mental disorders, using stimulant drugs, being poly-substance dependents and having prior treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of this study provide support for giving more attention to patients who are poly-substance or stimulant-drug dependents, have non-substance psychiatric comorbidity and the ones with addiction treatment history. Independent of patient characteristics, retention improved as the dose of methadone increased.
BACKGROUND: To identify correlates related to retention time of a cohort study of the opioid-dependent patients participating in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) program offered by a major addiction treatment clinic in Tehran, Iran between April 2007 and March 2011. METHODS: Several parametric Survival models assuming Weibull, Log-normal and Log-logistic distributions were compared to search for association between covariates and risk of relapse and dropping out of treatment among 198 patientparticipants. RESULTS: According to Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Log-normal model had the best fitting. Estimates of this model indicated that increase in average methadone dosage was associated with longer retention time. Correlates associated with shorter retention time were suffering from mental disorders, using stimulant drugs, being poly-substance dependents and having prior treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of this study provide support for giving more attention to patients who are poly-substance or stimulant-drug dependents, have non-substance psychiatric comorbidity and the ones with addiction treatment history. Independent of patient characteristics, retention improved as the dose of methadone increased.