Individuals who drop out of methadone treatment are good candidates for an alternative program which is based on three components: outreach workers to engage drop-outs in a therapeutic process; groups to provide peer support for recovery and specific cognitive-behavioral recovery skills; and individual counseling. These components provide a continuum of treatment with progressively increasing participation requirements made of subjects. This project will recruit 700 subjects who have recently dropped out of methadone maintenance clinics in East Harlem, New York, after having been in treatment for less than one year. Subjects will be randomly assigned to an Experimental Condition (providing the alternative program) or to a Control Condition (providing passive referrals only). SiX and twelve month follow-up interviews (including urinalysis) will be conducted. Multivariate regression techniques will be used to assess outcomes including frequency and type of drug use and return to traditional drug treatment.
| Kayman, Deborah J; Goldstein, Marjorie F; Deren, Sherry et al. (2006) Predicting treatment retention with a brief ""Opinions About Methadone"" scale. J Psychoactive Drugs 38:93-100 |
| Goldstein, Marjorie F; Deren, Sherry; Kang, Sung Yeon et al. (2002) Evaluation of an alternative program for MMTP drop-outs: impact on treatment re-entry. Drug Alcohol Depend 66:181-7 |
| Kang, Sung Yeon; Deren, Sherry; Goldstein, Marjorie F (2002) Relationships between childhood abuse and neglect experience and HIV risk behaviors among methadone treatment drop-outs. Child Abuse Negl 26:1275-89 |
| Goldstein, M F; Deren, S; Beardsley, M et al. (2001) An alternative program for methadone maintenance dropouts: description and preliminary data. Mt Sinai J Med 68:33-40 |
