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  • Title: Predictors of patient retention in a newly established methadone maintenance treatment programme.
    Author: del Rio M, Mino A, Perneger TV.
    Journal: Addiction; 1997 Oct; 92(10):1353-60. PubMed ID: 9489052.
    Abstract:
    AIMS: To identify predictors of patient retention in methadone maintenance. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Methadone maintenance treatment programme newly established in Geneva, Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: All patients who initiated treatment between February 1991 and January 1995. MEASUREMENTS: Baseline patient characteristics, dose of methadone, year of enrollment and retention in treatment. FINDINGS: Overall, 111 patients contributed 164.4 person-years of follow-up. The retention rate was 84% after 12 months. In multivariate analysis, the risk of dropping out was significantly higher for patients who had been using opioids for < or = 7 years (relative hazard (RH) 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-7.4), and for patients who had no stable income at baseline (RH 3.3, 95% CI 1.2-9.1). Dropouts were less frequent at the highest doses of methadone (65-110 mg/day, RH 1.0) than at middle doses (45-60 mg/day, RH 2.0, 95% CI 0.7-5.5) but, quite unexpectedly, dropouts were least likely at the lowest doses (15-40 mg/day, RH 0.5, 95% CI 0.1-1.8). Dropouts were more likely among patients who enrolled in the first (RH 6.2, 95% CI 2.3-16.7) and second (RH 1.9, 95% CI 0.6-5.6) years of the programme, compared with subsequent years (RH 1.0). CONCLUSIONS: Patients who have a long history of drug use and who have a stable income were more likely to stay in methadone maintenance treatment. Independent of patient characteristics, retention improved dramatically in the first years of programme functioning, suggesting that patient retention is a sensitive indicator of programme performance.
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