Best practice portal main page
Psychosocial interventions with substitution treatment to reduce use and mortality
Summary of the evidence
Methadone treatment plus psychosocial intervention compared with methadone treatment only was found in a systematic review of (WHO, 2009, 3 RCTs, N=388) to be more effective in:
- reducing heroin use (RR 0.69, 95 % CI 0.53 to 0.91)
Patients who received opioid agonist pharmacotherapy with psychological support were found in a national cohort study (Pierce et al., 2015, N=151 983) to be:
- less at risk for fatal drug-related poisoning when compared to those enrolled only in psychological intervention (adjusted hazard ratio for only psychological support, aHR = 2.07, 95 % CI 1.75 – 2.46)
