Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37312181›Full record

ArticleHarm reduction journal2023

Patients' satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study.

Rune Ellefsen, Linda Elise Couëssurel Wüsthoff, Espen Ajo Arnevik

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Harm reduction journal, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
7.0field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Health-related quality of life measures as predictors for recurrent hospitalization and mortality among patients in heroin-assisted treatment.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025
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  7. Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Rune EllefsenSection for Clinical Addiction Research, Oslo University Hospital, PO Box 4959 Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway. ruelle@ous-hf.no.
Linda Elise Couëssurel WüsthoffSection for Clinical Addiction Research, Oslo University Hospital, PO Box 4959 Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway.
Espen Ajo ArnevikSection for Clinical Addiction Research, Oslo University Hospital, PO Box 4959 Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway.
Oslo University Hospital · NO

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHeroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the self-reported satisfaction among the patients who receive this treatment. This study presents the first empirical findings about the patients' experiences of, and satisfaction with, HAT in the Norwegian context.

methodsQualitative in-depth interviews with 26 patients in HAT were carried out one to two months after their enrollment. Analysis sought to identify the main benefits and challenges that the research participants experienced with this treatment. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify the main areas of benefits and challenges. The benefits were weighed against the challenges in order to assess the participants' overall level of treatment satisfaction.

resultsAnalysis identified three different areas of experienced benefits and three areas of challenges of being in this treatment. It outlines how the participants' everyday lives are impacted by being in the treatment and how this, respectively, results from the treatment's medical, relational, or configurational dimensions. We found an overall high level of treatment satisfaction among the participants. The identification of experienced challenges reveals factors that reduce satisfaction and thus may hinder treatment retention and positive treatment outcomes.

conclusionsThe study demonstrates a novel approach to qualitatively investigate patients' treatment satisfaction across different treatment dimensions. The findings have implications for clinical practice by pointing out key factors that inhibit and facilitate patients' satisfaction with HAT. The identified importance of the socio-environmental factors and relational aspect of the treatment has further implications for the provision of opioid agonist treatment in general.

Indexed as

Opioid-Related DisordersPatient SatisfactionHeroinHumansQualitative ResearchSelf ReportHeroinDiacetylmorphineHeroin-assisted treatmentOpioid use disorderPatient satisfactionQualitative researchSocio-environmental factors

Identifiers

PMID37312181
PMCPMC10265766
OpenAlexW4380480625

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.