A review of records at a large urban methadone clinic revealed a subst
antial group of patients with treatment tenures of at least 6 months w
hose urinalysis results indicated continued regular use of opiates. In
an attempt to characterize these ''nonresponsive'' patients and to id
entify their specific treatment needs, we compared them to a group of
patients with comparable treatment tenures but whose urinalysis result
s indicated little or no recent illicit opiate use. Contrary to expect
ations, opiate use itself was virtually the only feature that clearly
distinguished thee groups. ''Responders'' and ''nonresponders'' did no
t differ significantly on measures of psychosocial problem severity in
any other area, nor did they differ in their treatment service utiliz
ation. Moreover, examination of admission data indicated that the two
groups showed similar rates of improvement in the severity of their ps
ychosocial problems in all seven measured areas. The implications of t
hese results for treatment and clinic administration are discussed. (C
) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.