Centre for Health Evaluation & Outcome Sciences, Providence Health Care, St. Paul's Hospital, 575-1081 Burrard St., Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada.
School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, 2206 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada.
Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2023 Sep 30;18(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s13011-023-00564-9.
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented relaxation of restrictions on take-home doses in opioid agonist treatment (OAT). We conducted a mixed methods systematic review to explore the impact of these changes on program effectiveness and client experiences in OAT. METHODS: The protocol for this review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022352310). From Aug.-Nov. 2022, we searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, and the grey literature. We included studies reporting quantitative measures of retention in treatment, illicit substance use, overdose, client health, quality of life, or treatment satisfaction or using qualitative methods to examine client experiences with take-home doses during the pandemic. We critically appraised studies using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. We synthesized quantitative data using vote-counting by direction of effect and presented the results in harvest plots. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic synthesis. We used a convergent segregated approach to integrate quantitative and qualitative findings. RESULTS: Forty studies were included. Most were from North America (23/40) or the United Kingdom (9/40). The quantitative synthesis was limited by potential for confounding, but suggested an association between take-home doses and increased retention in treatment. There was no evidence of an association between take-home doses and illicit substance use or overdose. Qualitative findings indicated that take-home doses reduced clients' exposure to unregulated substances and stigma and minimized work/treatment conflicts. Though some clients reported challenges with managing their medication, the dominant narrative was one of appreciation, reduced anxiety, and a renewed sense of agency and identity. The integrated analysis suggested reduced treatment burden as an explanation for improved retention and revealed variation in individual relationships between take-home doses and illicit substance use. We identified a critical gap in quantitative measures of patient-important outcomes. CONCLUSION: The relaxation of restrictions on take-home doses was associated with improved client experience and retention in OAT. We found no evidence of an association with illicit substance use or overdose, despite the expansion of take-home doses to previously ineligible groups. Including patient-important outcome measures in policy, program development, and treatment planning is essential to ensuring that decisions around take-home doses accurately reflect their value to clients.
背景:COVID-19 大流行导致阿片类药物激动剂治疗(OAT)中居家剂量的限制前所未有地放宽。我们进行了一项混合方法系统评价,以探究这些变化对 OAT 项目效果和客户体验的影响。
方法:本研究的方案已在 PROSPERO(CRD42022352310)注册。2022 年 8 月至 11 月,我们检索了 Medline、Embase、CINAHL、PsycInfo、Web of Science、Cochrane 对照试验注册库和灰色文献。我们纳入了报告治疗保留率、非法药物使用、过量、客户健康、生活质量或治疗满意度的定量措施的研究,或使用定性方法来检查大流行期间居家剂量对客户体验的影响的研究。我们使用混合方法评价工具对研究进行了批判性评价。我们使用效果方向投票计数法对定量数据进行综合,并在收获图中呈现结果。定性数据采用主题合成进行分析。我们使用收敛分离方法整合定量和定性研究结果。
结果:纳入了 40 项研究。大多数研究来自北美(23/40)或英国(9/40)。由于存在混杂因素的潜在影响,定量综合结果受到限制,但提示居家剂量与治疗保留率增加之间存在关联。没有证据表明居家剂量与非法药物使用或过量有关。定性结果表明,居家剂量减少了客户接触不受监管的物质和耻辱感,并最小化了工作/治疗冲突。尽管一些客户报告在管理药物方面存在挑战,但主导叙事是对减少焦虑、重新获得代理感和身份认同感的赞赏。综合分析表明,治疗负担减轻是保留率提高的一个解释,并揭示了居家剂量与非法药物使用之间个体关系的变化。我们发现,在患者重要结局的定量测量方面存在重要差距。
结论:放宽居家剂量的限制与 OAT 中客户体验和保留率的提高有关。尽管将居家剂量扩大到以前不符合条件的群体,但我们没有发现与非法药物使用或过量有关的证据。在政策、项目开发和治疗计划中纳入患者重要结局的衡量标准对于确保围绕居家剂量的决策准确反映其对客户的价值至关重要。
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