Six‑month retention and changes in quality of life and substance use from a low‑threshold methadone maintenance therapy programme in Durban, South Africa
dc.contributor.author | Scheibe, Andrew | |
dc.contributor.author | Shelly, Shaun | |
dc.contributor.author | Gerardy, Tara | |
dc.contributor.author | Von Homeyer, Zara | |
dc.contributor.author | Schneider, Andrea | |
dc.contributor.author | Padayachee, Kalvanya | |
dc.contributor.author | Naidoo, Shalon Balaguru | |
dc.contributor.author | Mtshweni, Klaas | |
dc.contributor.author | Matau, Ayanda | |
dc.contributor.author | Hausler, Harry | |
dc.contributor.author | Marks, Monique | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-04-07T12:04:16Z | |
dc.date.available | 2020-04-07T12:04:16Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-02-21 | |
dc.description.abstract | BACKGROUND : Emerging data points to a potential heroin use epidemic in South Africa. Despite this, access to methadone maintenance therapy and other evidence-based treatment options remains negligible. We aimed to assess retention, changes in substance use and quality of life after 6 months on methadone maintenance therapy provided through a low-threshold service in Durban, South Africa. METHODS : We enrolled a cohort of 54 people with an opioid use disorder into the study. We reviewed and described baseline socio-demographic characteristics. Baseline and 6-month substance use was assessed using the World Health Organization’s Alcohol Smoking and Substance Use Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) and quality of life, using the SF-12. We compared changes at 6 months on methadone to baseline using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and paired-tests for the ASSIST and SF-12 scores, respectively. McNemar’s test was used for comparisons between paired results of categorical variables relating to injecting frequency. RESULTS : The majority of the participants were young, Black African males, with a history of drug use spanning over 10 years. Retention after 6 months was 81%. After 6 months, the median heroin ASSIST score decreased from 37 to 9 (p < 0.0001) and the cannabis ASSIST score increased from 12.5 to 21 (p = 0.0003). The median mental health composite score of the SF-12 increased from 41.4 to 48.7 (p = 0.0254). CONCLUSIONS : Interim findings suggest high retention, significant reductions in heroin use and improvements in mental health among participants retained on methadone maintenance therapy for 6 months. Further research into longer term outcomes and the reasons contributing to these changes would strengthen recommendations for the scale-up of methadone maintenance therapy in South Africa. | en_ZA |
dc.description.department | Family Medicine | en_ZA |
dc.description.librarian | am2020 | en_ZA |
dc.description.sponsorship | The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Open Society Foundation, Mainline through the Bridging the Gaps project. | en_ZA |
dc.description.uri | https://ascpjournal.biomedcentral.com | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.citation | Scheibe, A., Shelly, S., Gerardy, T. et al. 2020, 'Six‑month retention and changes in quality of life and substance use from a low‑threshold methadone maintenance therapy programme in Durban, South Africa', Addiction Science and Clinical Practice, vol. 15, art. 13, pp. 1-11. | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.issn | 1940-0632 (print) | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1940-0640 (online) | |
dc.identifier.other | 10.1186/s13722-020-00186-7 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/74076 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
dc.publisher | BioMed Central | en_ZA |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Heroin use | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Opioid use | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Opioid agonist treatment | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Methadone maintenance therapy | en_ZA |
dc.subject.other | Health sciences articles SDG-03 | |
dc.subject.other | SDG-03: Good health and well-being | |
dc.title | Six‑month retention and changes in quality of life and substance use from a low‑threshold methadone maintenance therapy programme in Durban, South Africa | en_ZA |
dc.type | Article | en_ZA |