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  • Title: The effectiveness of outreach case management in re-enrolling discharged methadone patients.
    Author: Coviello DM, Zanis DA, Wesnoski SA, Alterman AI.
    Journal: Drug Alcohol Depend; 2006 Oct 15; 85(1):56-65. PubMed ID: 16675163.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: Heroin dependence is a chronic relapsing disease often requiring multiple treatment experiences. Despite this knowledge, few methadone programs follow-up with discharged patients who frequently continue to engage in risky behaviors. The aim of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of outreach case management for post-discharged methadone patients. METHODS: At 90 days post-discharge 128 active out of treatment heroin users were randomly assigned to receive either a passive referral (PR) for drug treatment (n=52) or were provided with 6 weeks of outreach case management (OCM), an intervention designed to help motivate and coach patients to re-enter treatment (n=76). RESULTS: At 6 months post-baseline 29% of the OCM participants had successfully re-enrolled in drug treatment compared to 8% of the PR participants (chi(2)=7.6, d.f.=1, p=0.006). A logistic regression analysis showed that OCM participants were nearly six times more likely than PR participants to re-engage in MMT (OR=5.8, CI=1.6-20.8, p=0.008). Moreover, OCM subjects had fewer opiate and cocaine positive urines at the 6-month follow-up compared to PR subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the importance of engaging former patients in treatment and actively assisting in treatment re-entry. OCM is a simple approach to reduce the number of out-of-treatment drug users, although availability of treatment funding limits enrollment opportunities.
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