ArticleBMC family practice2018
Optimising treatment in opioid dependency in primary care: results from a national key stakeholder and expert focus group in Ireland.
Article in BMC family practice, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physician Reluctance to Intervene in Addiction: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- Patient's and healthcare provider's experiences with Opioid Maintenance Treatment (OMT): a qualitative evidence synthesis.BMC health services research · 2024Pooled it
- Implementation challenges and opportunities in decentralized methadone service delivery.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Optimal provision of opiate substitution therapy and needle and syringe programmes: a multi-method realist evaluation.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2025Article
- Implementation Challenges and Opportunities in Decentralized Methadone Service Delivery.Research square · 2025Article
- "We knew it was coming: we didn't act" perspectives from people who use drugs and substance use workforce on the impact of delays in implementation of the supervised injection facility and drug checking interventions.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Understanding the use of telemedicine across different opioid use disorder treatment models: A scoping review.Journal of telemedicine and telecare · 2025Article
- Challenges of methadone maintenance treatment decentralisation from Vietnamese primary care providers' perspectives.Drug and alcohol review · 2023Article
- Do interruptions to the continuity of methadone maintenance treatment in specialist addiction settings increase the risk of drug-related poisoning deaths? A retrospective cohort study.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Observational
- Integrating hepatitis C care for at-risk groups (HepLink): baseline data from a multicentre feasibility study in primary and community care.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2019Article
- Hepatitis C virus infection in Irish drug users and prisoners - a scoping review.BMC infectious diseases · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTreatment for opioid dependence in Ireland is provided predominantly by general practitioners (GP) who have undergone additional training in opioid agonist treatment (OAT) and substance misuse. The National Methadone Treatment Programme (MTP) was introduced in 1998, and was designed to treat the opioid dependent population and to regulate the prescribing regimes at the time. The past two decades have seen the increased prescribing of methadone in primary care and changes in type of opioid abused, in particular, the increased use of over the counter (OTC) and prescription medications. Despite the scaling up of OAT in Ireland, drug related deaths however have increased and waiting lists for treatment exist in some areas outside the capital, Dublin. Two previous MTP reviews have made recommendations aimed at improving and scaling up of OAT in Ireland. This study updates these recommendations and is the first time that a group of national experts have engaged in structured research to identify barriers to OAT delivery in Ireland. The aim was to explore the views of national statutory and non-statutory stakeholders and experts on current barriers within the MTP and broader OAT delivery structures in order to inform their future design and implementation.
methodsA single focus group with a chosen group of national key stakeholders and experts with a broad range of expertise (clinical, addiction and social inclusion management, harm reduction, homelessness, specialist GPs, academics) (n = 11) was conducted. The group included national representation from the areas of drug treatment delivery, service design, policy and practice in Ireland.
resultsFour themes emerged from the narrative analysis, and centred on OAT Choices and Patient Characteristics; Systemic Barriers to Optimal OAT Service Provision; GP Training and Registration in the MTP, and Solutions and Models of Good Practice: Using What You Have.
conclusionThe study identified a series of improvement strategies which could reduce barriers to access and the stigma associated with OAT, optimise therapeutic choices, enhance interagency care planning within the MTP, utilise the strengths of community pharmacy and nurse prescribers, and recruit and support methadone prescribing GPs in Ireland.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.