Viral and Psychiatric Disorders in Methadone Maintenance Therapy (MMT) Clients

Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is currently widely accepted as the treatment of choice for opioid replacement therapy.
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV infections as well as psychiatric disorders in our MMT cases.
Patients and Using a cross-sectional study design, we studied patients treated for opioid abuse or addiction who attended MMT programs in Rafsanjan, Iran, from March to June 2012. HIV, HBV, and HCV test reports were recorded from MMT clients’ documents (ELISA and Western blotting results), and psychiatric disorders were diagnosed by two trained psychology interviewers according to the DSM-IV criteria.
Of the 1,825 patients included in this study, 1,737 (95.2%) were men with a mean age of 28.00 ± 7.69 years (range: 18 - 52 years). In total, 64 (3.5%) subjects showed symptoms of depression and 21 (1.2%) had anxiety. The prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV were 4 (0.2%), 31 (1.7%), and 18 (1.0%), respectively. The association between psychiatric disorders and chronic diseases did not reach a statistically significant level (Fisher’s exact test, P = 0.193).
The prevalence of HBV, HIV, and psychiatric disorders in our study group was lower than in previous reports. This may be because we entered participants from private MMT centers. Therefore, our results are not generalizable to other populations. Nevertheless, HCV prevalence was higher, and our results lead us to recommend that training programs be planned to prevent the outbreak of these viral infections.