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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2000, 02, 1 (pages: 33 - 38)

Take-home and compliance with methadone maintenance treatment

Pani P. P., Pirastu R.

Summary: One of the most important restrictions placed on patients during methadone treatment is the need for daily attendance at the outpatient unit providing the medication. While this may be obvious for patients beginning the treatment, many patients stabilized on appropriate doses of methadone complain of its interference with their activities (home, work, leisure). To see if take-home methadone promoted the retention of patients in treatment, we compared, on the basis of various demographic and clinical characteristics, the patients enrolled in the take-home programme with those attending the clinic daily. The opportunity to broaden the investigation by including the relationship between take-home policy and retention in treatment partly derwed from the law which, between 1991 and 1993, prohibited the take-home option. The comparison of patients with and without the take-home advantage seems to show a longer retention in treatment for the first group, without specifying anything about the role of take-home in promoting retention. Our clinical practice suggests that when sufficient guarantees as to the reliability of the patient exists, take-home methadone practice may be a useful tool for promoting compliance and improving the retention rate of patients in treatment