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Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
Published in: Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research

Comparison of socio-demographic characteristics, substance, and depression among male heroin users attending therapeutic community and methadone maintenance treatment program in Nantou, Taiwan

Authors: Vincent Chin-Hung Chen, Meng-Huan Wu, Tsang-Yaw Lin, Yi-Feng Ho, Hsin-Yi Wang, Michael Gossop

Published in: Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

Little is known about differences between the characteristics and psychopathological symptoms of heroin users attending TC or MMT in Asia. This study aimed to compare characteristics and prevalence of depressive disorders among male heroin users in TC and MMT program in Nantou, Taiwan.

Methods

The study sample (n = 705) comprised male heroin users with heroin dependence recruited from the MMT program and TC program at a psychiatric center in Nantou, Taiwan between 2006 and 2014. Socio-demographic and heroin-related characteristics were obtained from self-report questionnaires. DSM-IV diagnoses of heroin dependence, major depressive disorder, and dysthymic disorder were evaluated by trained interviewers. T-test and chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression were performed to measure the differences on variables between samples of TC and MMT.

Results

Compared to MMT, TC participants had poorer family support, higher rate of unmarried, higher rate of unemployment, earlier onset of heroin use, longer length of heroin use, and lower daily dosage of heron. MMT heroin users had higher 1-month prevalence of major depressive disorder than TC participants. We found the distribution of current major depression disorder differed between heroin users choosing different treatment models even controlling for other demographic factors, substance related factors and psychosocial factors. The underlying explanations require further investigation.

Conclusions

This study found differences in the characteristics and prevalence of psychopathology. Further study to explore the effect of these differences on the outcome between MMT and TC is warranted.
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Metadata
Title
Comparison of socio-demographic characteristics, substance, and depression among male heroin users attending therapeutic community and methadone maintenance treatment program in Nantou, Taiwan
Authors
Vincent Chin-Hung Chen
Meng-Huan Wu
Tsang-Yaw Lin
Yi-Feng Ho
Hsin-Yi Wang
Michael Gossop
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1747-597X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0037-y

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