Methadone Maintenance for Prisoners

Condition(s) targeted: Heroin Addiction

Intervention: methadone maintenance treatment (Drug)

Phase: Phase 3

Status: Active, not recruiting

Sponsored by: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Official(s) and/or principal investigator(s):
Timothy W Kinlock, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Affiliation: Friends Research Institute, Inc.

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

Study design: Treatment, Randomized, Open Label, Active Control, Parallel Assignment

Primary outcome:

treatment entry and retention in the community

heroin use

cocaine use

HIV-risk behaviors

criminal activity

Secondary outcome: employment

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.

Minimum age: 18 Years. Maximum age: 65 Years. Gender(s): Male.

Criteria:

Inclusion Criteria:

Heroin dependence in the year prior to current incarceration 3-6 months left to serve in prison-male pre-release inmate suitability for methadone maintenance as determined by

medical eval. willingness to enroll in methadone maintenance having a Baltimore address -

Exclusion Criteria:

pending parole hearing pending charges kidney failure liver failure

-

Metropolitan Transition Center, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States

Starting date: September 2003
Ending date: January 2008
Last updated: September 15, 2006