OBJECTIVES To describe and evaluate a pilot methadone maintenance program for heroin-dependent inmates of Las Malvinas men's prison in San Juan, Puerto Rico. METHODS Data from self-report of inmates' drug use before and during incarceration, attitudes about drug treatment in general and methadone maintenance in particular, and expectations about behaviors upon release from prison and from tes...

BACKGROUND Despite its effectiveness, methadone maintenance is rarely provided in American correctional facilities. This study is the first randomized clinical trial in the US to examine the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment provided to prisoners with pre-incarceration heroin addiction. METHODS A three-group randomized controlled trial was conducted between September 2003 and J...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of methadone dose on post-release retention in treatment among HIV-infected prisoners initiating methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) within prison. METHODS Thirty HIV-infected prisoners meeting DSM-IV pre-incarceration criteria for opioid dependence were enrolled in a prison-based, pre-release MMT program in Klang Valley, Malaysia; 3 died before release from...

ôbjective: substance abuse is commonly associated with psychiatric disorders including mood disorders (especially depression), personality disorders and psychosis. the purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of methadone on depressive symptoms of imprisoned intravenous substance user. methods: this semi-experimental study was conducted on intravenous drug abusers in pris...

BACKGROUND Many opiate users require prescribed medication to help them achieve abstinence, commonly taking the form of a detoxification regime. In UK prisons, drug users are nearly universally treated for their opiate use by primary care clinicians, and once released access GP services where 40% of practices now treat drug users. There is a paucity of evidence evaluating methadone and bupreno...

The prison population is a high-risk group for tuberculosis (TB). This investigation aimed to study predictive factors of treatment adherence among prisoners involved in a pilot programme of supervised treatment. The study included TB patients from the Men's Penitentiary Center of Barcelona (MPCB) in 1995. Directly observed therapy (DOT) was carried out in the infirmary or in a methadone progra...

PROBLEM In Malaysia, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is highly concentrated among people who inject opioids. For this reason, the country undertook a three-phase roll-out of a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programme. In Phase 3, described in this paper, MMT was implemented within prisons and retention in care was assessed. APPROACH After developing standard operating proc...

BACKGROUND Opioid substitution treatment (OST) is not uniformly provided in all prisons as recommended by international guidelines. The Swiss prison of Champ-Dollon in Geneva is an exception, where OST has been available for the last 20 years. The aims of this study were to describe the OST programme in this pretrial prison setting, and the patients involved. METHODS We reviewed health record...

background& aim: substance abuse is associated with high prevalence of psychiatric disorders including mood disorders (especially depression), personality disorders and psychosis. the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of methadone and its result on substance induced depression-symptoms among iv drug abusers of kashan prison in 1384. method & materials: this is a semi-experimen...