Retention and related factors of methadone treatment among drug users

Objective To explore the status of retention and related factors of community-based methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) among drug users in Jiangsu province.Methods Local heroine-dependent people were admitted to community-based MMT program with national MMT guideline.Data on outpatients' demographic characteristics,durg use behaviors and daily stabilized dose of drugs were entered to national MMT database and analyzed by survival analysis method.Results There were 590 drug users withdrawing MMT treatment among 1 358 heroin-dependent drug users and the median length of stay in MMT was 603 days.One year and two year maintenance probability were 72.81%and 52.67%,respectively.Gender,marriage status,age at the first drug use and stabilized dose had significant effect on maintenance of MMT in multiple Cox proportional hazard regression model.Conclusion Retention of MMT among drug users was very high in Jiangsu province,but after 24 months the retention dropped rapidly.Patients should be given more individual counseling and social help and higher dose within the ranges of clinic dosage to increase the compliance rate.