CHARACTERIZING NONRESPONSIVE METHADONE PATIENTS

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.