ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2022
Methadone within prison and linkage to and retention in treatment upon community release for people with opioid use disorder in Kyrgyzstan: Evaluation of a national program.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2022. 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, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to reduce harms related to drug use among people who experience incarceration: systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Public health · 2024Pooled it
- Prescribing methadone in prison predicts linkage to HIV care after release from prison: A randomized and patient preference trial.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Trial
- Impact of prerelease methadone on mortality among people with HIV and opioid use disorder after prison release: results from a randomized and participant choice open-label trial in Malaysia.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Trial
- Exploring multi-level barriers and human-centered solutions to expand methadone for HIV prevention among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2026Article
- Using the socioecological model to guide service delivery improvements to the prison needle exchange program in Canada: insights from multi-level stakeholders.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Tuberculosis treatment outcomes after transfer or release from incarceration: a retrospective cohort study from Brazil.BMC global and public health · 2025Article
- Pilot of Methadone for Recently Incarcerated People with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Opioid Use in South Africa.Journal of correctional health care : the official journal of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care · 2025Article
- Tuberculosis treatment outcomes after transfer or release from incarceration: A retrospective cohort study from Brazil.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Lessons learned from the Eastern Europe and central Asia region on the elimination of HIV vertical transmission: insights from United Nations Children's fund.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2025Article
- Higher methadone dose at time of release from prison predicts linkage to maintenance treatment for people with HIV and opioid use disorder transitioning to the community in Malaysia.The International journal on drug policy · 2024Article
- Trajectory and progress of opioid agonist therapy programs in the Kyrgyz Republic.Global health economics and sustainability · 2024Article
- Introducing methadone maintenance therapy into Ukrainian prisons: a qualitative study of criminal subculture, Russia's full-scale invasion, and contested methadone objects.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Medication for opioid use disorder treatment continuity post-release from jail: A qualitative study with community-based treatment providers.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
- Implementation opportunities for scaling up methadone maintenance treatment in Kyrgyzstan: Methadone dosage and retention on treatment over two years.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2022Article
- A pilot implementation study to scale-up methadone in incarcerated persons with opioid use disorder and retain them on treatment after release in Moldova.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHIV incidence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) continues to increase, primarily among people who inject drugs (PWID) and people in prisons. In Kyrgyzstan, an estimated 35% of people in prison are PWID, and 10% have been diagnosed with HIV. In 2008, Kyrgyzstan became the first country in EECA to provide free and voluntary methadone in prisons. We examine the impact of this national program on methadone within prison as well as linkage to and retention in treatment upon release to the community.
methodsAdministrative data from a national methadone registry with de-identified information were assessed retrospectively. We examined the delivery of methadone services, including the duration of treatment both within prison and after release, for all prisoners who were prescribed methadone in Kyrgyz prisons from 2008 to 2018. Reasons for discontinuing methadone, HIV status and methadone dose are also analyzed.
resultsBetween 2008 and 2018, nine of Kyrgyzstan's 16 prisons offered methadone, and 982 incarcerated people initiated methadone within prison. Prisoners prescribed methadone were mostly male (96.2%), in their mid-30s (mean=34.9 years), and had been incarcerated for a relatively long time (mean = 44.1 months); their mean treatment duration in prison was 12.5 months, and 31.6% had HIV. A subsample (N = 645; 65.7%) of these were released to the community. Of these 645 people, 356 (55.2%) were not taking methadone at the time of release, 128 (19.8%) were on methadone and continued it after release, and the remainder (N=161, 25.0%) were on methadone at the time of release, but subsequently discontinued it, most within the first 7 days after release. Among those continuing methadone, 14.8% (N=19) remained on treatment ≥ 12 months. Independent correlates of linkage to methadone after release included positive HIV status (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR)=1.55; p = 0.033), receipt of methadone before their incarceration (aHR=2.01; p = 0.039), and receipt of methadone at the time of release (aHR = 20.81; p<0.001).
conclusionThis is the first evaluation of within-prison methadone treatment in EECA. Uptake of methadone within prison and retention in treatment after release were both low. Continuous maintenance of treatment throughout incarceration is an opportunity to optimize HIV prevention and link patients to methadone post-release.
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