NCT00378079

Methadone Maintenance for Prisoners

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 211 (actual)
• Sponsor: Friends Research Institute, Inc. · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This five-year study examines the benefits of methadone maintenance treatment initiated in prison and continued in the community to male offenders who were previously, but not currently, heroin-dependent. It is anticipated that such prisoners will have more favorable outcomes in the year following release with regard to drug abuse, crime, and HIV risk behavior than either prisoners who receive counseling only or begin initiation of methadone maintenance in the community

Detailed description

Most prisoners with histories of pre-incarceration heroin addiction do not receive treatment while incarcerated or upon release. Effective treatment for such prisoners is urgently needed because rapid relapse typically follows release. Relapse is associated with increased risk for HIV, overdose death, criminal activity, and reincarceration. Other than three studies of methadone maintenance with short-term jail inmates, the only study of longer-term inmates who were previously, but not currently, heroin-dependent was the investigator's pilot study with pre-release inmates. Based on that pilot study, which found that initiating maintenance treatment is feasible and facilitates post-release treatment entry, the present study provides a more rigorous examination of this unique treatment approach.

Conditions

• Heroin Addiction

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Counseling Only	Counseling only in prison, with passive referral to drug abuse treatment upon release
DRUG	Counseling + Transfer	Counseling only in prison, with opportunity to enter methadone maintenance upon release
DRUG	Counseling + Methadone	Counseling and methadone maintenance in prison, with opportunity to continue that treatment upon release

Timeline

• Start date: 2003-09-01
• Primary completion: 2008-01-01
• Completion: 2008-01-01
• First posted: 2006-09-19
• Last updated: 2014-04-03
• Results posted: 2014-04-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States