Mejoria de la gravedad de la adiccion en los tratamientos con metadona

ENGLISH :
Introduction: results from methadone treatments have been assessed according to the following criteria: abstinence, retention, delinquency-rate reduction, social and labour integration. This traditional view has been extended to include harm-reduction. Furthermore, we have employed measuring instruments covering ail the above mentioned aspects. Objective: to assess addiction severity as well as to study the results of the one-year follow-up period. Design: a prospective, longitudinal and multi-centre study. Patients and method: 197 patients under methadone treatment.The measuring instrument employed was the Opiate Treatment Index (OTI). It was used one month and one year after treatment intake. Results: After one year of undergoing treatment, retention rates amounted to 57%. 3% of the sample was still consuming heroin daily, 9% was consuming cocaine. The average dose for retained patients was 56 mg/day. Both dropouts and retained patients were administered the same initial doses. Needle-sharing habits decreased from an initial 13% to 8% at the conclusion of the year long period. Addiction severity was significantly lower at the final assessment. Patients with a delinquency record were 2.8 times more likely to drop out than patients wit- hout one. 89% of patients considered the treatment to be good or very good. Discussion: An improvement is observed at a global operating level. However, both social and psychological adjustment deficiencies remain. Delinquency is usually a dropout predictor. (Review's abstract.)