Premature discontinuation from methadone treatment programs (MTP) is a frequent occurrence and is associated with continued illicit drug use, HIV infection, overdose death, and crime. This resubmission of our competing renewal application builds on the findings of our parent grant (5R01DA 015842) in which nearly half of over 350 newly admitted MTP were no longer in treatment at 12-month follow-up, in large part because of the powerful influence of program rules and the role of the counselor as enforcer of the rules. Our goal is to test the impact of a fundamental re-engineering of MTPs, based on the conceptual model of patient-centered care (IOM, 2006),1 in order to avoid premature drop-out and to improve patient outcomes. Nearly all premature discharges in our parent R01 were due to: (1) """"""""administrative"""""""" discharge, typically involuntary;(2) patient drop-out;or, (3) not being re-admitted after brief incarcerations. To reduce """"""""administrative"""""""" discharge, PC-MTP will reorganize the staff roles and MTP rules. Counselors will not be responsible for enforcing the clinics'rules for their patients, patients will be encouraged but not required to participate in counseling, and most clinic rule infractions will result in consequences short of """"""""administrative"""""""" discharge. Administrative discharge, found nowhere else in medicine although common among MTPs, is incongruent with the conceptualization of opioid addiction as a chronic disease. Relieving the counselor of the role of enforcer and making counseling voluntary should alleviate the inherent conflict and power imbalance thereby increasing the therapeutic alliance and patient satisfaction and hence treatment retention. Finally, patients will be actively welcomed by the MTP to return to treatment upon release without arbitrary deadlines to return and their counselors will conduct active outreach for participants not returning on their own. This two-site randomized clinical trial with 300 participants will compare, on an intent-to-treat basis, the relative efficacy of PC-MTP to treatment-as-usual MTP (TAU). Participants will be assessed at baseline and at 3, 6 and 12 months post-baseline. The study's aims are: (1) to compare the impact of PC-MTP to TAU on: a) days in treatment;b) heroin and cocaine use;c) HIV risk behavior;d) criminal behavior and arrest;e) quality of life;and f) likelihood of meeting DSM-IV criteria for heroin and cocaine dependence at 12 month follow-up;(2) on therapeutic alliance and patient satisfaction;and (3) cost, cost-effectiveness, and cost-benefit. This study promises to examine the re-engineering of an MTP structure that has largely remained unchanged for the past 40 years. Further, since some drug use is not tantamount to dependence, we are including measures of quality of life and DSM-IV drug dependence and hence, our findings may challenge the long held gold standard that considers complete abstinence as the most important measure of patient progress. Because of the poor prognosis of premature discharge in MTPs, increasing retention in treatment can have a powerful effect on overall patient outcome, public health and on cost-benefit of treatment.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed study is significant because newly-admitted methadone treatment patients have a high premature discharge rate during the first year of treatment. Premature discharge from methadone treatment is associated with drug use, overdose, HIV risk and criminal behavior. The proposed study is innovative because it seeks to test a novel change to the usual methadone treatment program structures which have been only modestly changed since the early 1970s. The public health impact of the proposed study will be high because the study may reveal that this new approach to treatment can prevent illicit drug use, HIV risk behavior, crime and overdose as compared to treatment as usual.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA015842-07
Application #
8230570
Study Section
Risk, Prevention and Intervention for Addictions Study Section (RPIA)
Program Officer
Ducharme, Lori
Project Start
2011-03-01
Project End
2015-02-28
Budget Start
2012-03-01
Budget End
2013-02-28
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$654,665
Indirect Cost
$201,783
Name
Friends Research Institute, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
010095032
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21201
Mitchell, Shannon Gwin; Monico, Laura B; Lertch, Elizabeth et al. (2018) Counseling Staff's Views of Patient-Centered Methadone Treatment: Changing Program Rules and Staff Roles. J Behav Health Serv Res 45:506-515
Dunlap, Laura J; Zarkin, Gary A; Orme, Stephen et al. (2018) Re-engineering methadone-Cost-effectiveness analysis of a patient-centered approach to methadone treatment. J Subst Abuse Treat 94:81-90
Schwartz, Robert P; Kelly, Sharon M; Mitchell, Shannon Gwinn et al. (2017) When does methadone treatment reduce arrest and severity of arrest charges? An analysis of arrest records. Drug Alcohol Depend 180:385-390
Schwartz, Robert P; Kelly, Sharon M; Mitchell, Shannon G et al. (2017) Patient-centered methadone treatment: a randomized clinical trial. Addiction 112:454-464
Monico, Laura; Schwartz, Robert P; Gryczynski, Jan et al. (2016) Two Models of Integrating Buprenorphine Treatment and Medical Staff within Formerly ""Drug-Free"" Outpatient Programs. J Psychoactive Drugs 48:101-8
Schwartz, Robert P (2016) When Added to Opioid Agonist Treatment, Psychosocial Interventions do not Further Reduce the Use of Illicit Opioids: A Comment on Dugosh et al. J Addict Med 10:283-5
Schwartz, Robert P; Kelly, Sharon M; Gryczynski, Jan et al. (2015) Heroin Use, HIV-Risk, and Criminal Behavior in Baltimore: Findings from Clinical Research. J Addict Dis 34:151-61
Peters, Erica N; Schwartz, Robert P; Wang, Shuai et al. (2014) Psychiatric, psychosocial, and physical health correlates of co-occurring cannabis use disorders and nicotine dependence. Drug Alcohol Depend 134:228-234
Serpelloni, Giovanni; Gomma, Maurizio; Genetti, Bruno et al. (2013) Italy's electronic health record system for opioid agonist treatment. J Subst Abuse Treat 45:190-5
Blanco, Carlos; Secades-Villa, Roberto; García-Rodríguez, Olaya et al. (2013) Probability and predictors of remission from life-time prescription drug use disorders: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. J Psychiatr Res 47:42-9

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