the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment in the reduction of anxiety and depression among drug-related prisoners

background methadone effectively alleviates psychiatric disorders. objectives the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of methadone maintenance therapy in reduction of anxiety and depression among drug-abuser prisoners in ahvaz karoon’s prison. patients and methods in our interventional case-control study, 100 drug-abuser prisoners in ahvaz karoon’s prison, iran, with the symptoms of depression and anxiety according to symptom checklist (scl-90-r) were divided into methadone and control groups. methadone group prisoners filled out the questionnaire at the beginning of the study and 6 months after methadone therapy and their scores were recorded. similarly, 50 control group (without methadone or any other therapy) prisoners filled out the scl-90-r and their scores were recorded. afterwards, the data were collected and analyzed statistically by spss version 20. independent t-test was used for comparison between the case and the control group. results the average ages of control and methadone groups were 42.24 ± 9.8 and 42.30 ± 9.8 years, respectively. the difference between groups regarding depression in methadone group (0.67 ± 0.49) and control group (2.82 ± 0.67) was significant (p = 0.001). the difference between methadone (0.59 ± 0.24) and control (2.56 ± 0.38) groups regarding anxiety was significant (p = 0.001). the difference in obsession between methadone (0.51 ± 0.25) and control (2.78 ± 0.43) groups was significant (p = 0.001). moreover, the difference between hostility in methadone (0.61 ± 0.43) and control (2.48 ± 0.52) groups was significant (p = 0.001). conclusions this study indicated that methadone effectively alleviates psychiatric disorders in drug addicts . furthermore, methadone maintenance treatment improved patients’ quality of life and kept them in a mood-stabilization stage.