ArticleAddiction science & clinical practice2020
Six-month retention and changes in quality of life and substance use from a low-threshold methadone maintenance therapy programme in Durban, South Africa.
Article in Addiction science & clinical practice, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pain, policy, and the opioid dilemma in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of access, regulation, and health governance from 1990 to 2024.Health policy and planning · 2026Pooled it
- Perspectives on medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) access and service delivery among a community sample of people who use opioids in Los Angeles.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Retention of people who inject drugs enrolled in a 'medications for opioid use disorder' (MOUD) programme in Uganda.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- "As safe as possible": a qualitative study of opioid withdrawal and risk behavior among people who use illegal opioids.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Methadone use for acute opioid withdrawal in Tshwane shelters during the COVID-19 lockdown.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2023Article
- Opioid use and HIV treatment services experiences among male criminal justice-involved persons in South Africa: a qualitative study.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Mental health symptoms among homeless shelter residents during COVID-19 lockdown in Tshwane, South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2023Article
- High risk injection drug use and uptake of HIV prevention and treatment services among people who inject drugs in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Retention in treatment and therapeutic adherence: How are these associated with therapeutic success? An analysis using real-world data.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2022Observational
- Diagnosis and treatment of opioid-related disorders in a South African private sector medical insurance scheme: A cohort study.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
- Assessing the Temporality Between Transitions onto Opioid Agonist Therapy and Engagement with Antiretroviral Therapy in a Cohort of HIV-Positive People Who Use Opioids Daily.AIDS and behavior · 2022Article
- The Methadone Manifesto: Treatment Experiences and Policy Recommendations From Methadone Patient Activists.American journal of public health · 2022Article
- CYP2B6 Functional Variability in Drug Metabolism and Exposure Across Populations-Implication for Drug Safety, Dosing, and Individualized Therapy.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Review
- High retention in an opioid agonist therapy project in Durban, South Africa: the role of best practice and social cohesion.Harm reduction journal · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEmerging 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.
methodsWe 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.
resultsThe 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).
conclusionsInterim 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.
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