Psychosocial interventions with substitution treatment to reduce use and mortality

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)