Project description

Background: Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) is widely used for the treatment and prevention of harm among opioid-dependent patients, but little evidence exists about its effectiveness in Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of OST on psychological, social, and behavioral outcomes in opioid-dependent patients in Lebanon.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study as performed at SKOUN Lebanese Addiction Centre between January 2013 & December 2014. 86 patients under OST (experimental group) and 81 controls (standard psychological follow-up) were followed up for 12 months. Psychological (depression and anxiety: HADS scale; quality of life: EUROHIS scale; substance dependence/abuse: DSM Criteria), behavioural (injecting behavior, sharing needles and paraphilia) and social outcomes were evaluated at baseline, 3 and 12 months post-treatment. Paired t-test and ANCOVA were used to monitor changes in a numerical and Mc-Nemer test for categorical variables.

Results: Remarkable improvements were observed after 30months in the group under buprenorphine as compared to the control group with statistically significant and stronger magnitude of changes in most outcome variables including quality of life, anxiety, substance dependence, overdose, employment and injecting behavior. Results support expanding the access to buprenorphine in other MENA countries to treat substance dependence and reduce harms among injecting drug users.

Researchers

Keywords

Drugs Drug Addiction Drug Addiction Treatment