Methadone maintenance in primary care: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Context: Methadone maintenance is an effective treatment for opioid dependence, yet its use is restricted to federally licensed narcotic treatment programs (NTPs). Office-based care of stabilized methadone maintenance patients is a promising alternative but no data are available from controlled trials regarding this type of program.

Objective: To determine the feasibility and efficacy of office-based methadone maintenance by primary care physicians vs in an NTP for stable opioid-dependent patients.

Design: Six-month, randomized controlled open clinical trial conducted February 1999-March 2000.

Setting: Offices of 6 primary care internists and an NTP.

Patients: Forty-seven opioid-dependent patients who had been receiving methadone maintenance therapy in an NTP without evidence of illicit drug use for 1 year and without significant untreated psychiatric comorbidity were randomized; 1 patient refused to participate after treatment assignment to NTP.

Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned to receive office-based methadone maintenance from primary care physicians, who received specialized training in the care of opioid-dependent patients (n = 22), or usual care at an NTP (n = 24).

Main outcome measures: Illicit drug use, clinical instability (persistent drug use), patient and clinician satisfaction, functional status, and use of health, legal, and social services, compared between the 2 groups.

Results: Eleven of 22 (50%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 29%-71%) patients in office-based care compared with 9 of 24 (38%; 95% CI, 21%-57%) of NTP patients had a self-report or urine toxicology test result indicating illicit opiate use (P =.39). Hair toxicology testing detected an additional 2 patients in each treatment group with evidence of illicit drug use, but this did not change the overall findings. Ongoing illicit drug use meeting criteria for clinical instability occurred in 4 of 22 (18%; 95% CI, 7%-39%) patients in office-based care compared with 5 of 24 (21%; 95% CI, 9%-41%) NTP patients (P =.82). Sixteen of the 22 (73%; 95% CI, 54%-92%) office-based patients compared with 3 of the 24 (13%; 95% CI, 0%-26%) NTP patients thought the quality of care was excellent (P =.001). There were no differences over time within or between groups in functional status or use of health, legal, or social services.

Conclusions: Our results support the feasibility and efficacy of transferring stable opioid-dependent patients receiving methadone maintenance to primary care physicians' offices for continuing treatment and suggest guidelines for identifying patients and clinical monitoring.