Recovery-orientated OST study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identifying Facilitators and Barriers of Successful Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST)
IRAS ID
249372
Contact name
Victoria Carlisle
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, days
Research summary
Opioid substitution treatment, or OST (methadone/buprenorphine) is the standard treatment for heroin dependency in England. OST has a strong evidence base for reducing harms associated with injecting drug use. It also drastically reduces the chances of dying from an overdose. Despite this, the longer-term benefits of OST have been questioned; some argue that OST fails to help enough people become free from drugs and leave treatment.
The government, therefore, want treatment providers to place greater focus on abstinence. However, long-term OST use is also important because unplanned exits from treatment may result in a relapse to heroin use and potentially, a fatal overdose. There needs to be a balance between helping those that are ready to safely leave treatment while retaining others for long enough that they can stabilise and build their ability to recover.
Interventions to help people build upon their recovery and eventually detox from treatment are expensive compared to harm reduction support, such as needle and syringe programmes. Local governments commissioning drug and alcohol treatment are currently facing harsh funding cuts. Service providers are therefore being asked to do more with less.
To help more people leave treatment drug-free, it is first necessary to analyse existing anonmysided data on successful treatment completions to see what factors are related to a person being able to leave treatment and maintain their recovery long-term. We can then explore potential facilitators and barriers to staying in and leaving treatment.
Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to understand the factors that make it more likely that individuals on OST will be ready to leave treatment, maintain their recovery and avoid relapse. We acknowledge that for many, long-term OST offers the best chance of stability and therefore we will also seek to discover the factors that help people to stay in treatment.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0242
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion