Dosage of pharmacologic medication and length of follow-up did not affect changes in domain scores .
WHOQOL-BREF and ASI domain scoring is a useful tool in measuring overall quality of life and levels of addiction among OST participants .
BACKGROUND Opioid substitution treatment ( OST ) can increase quality of life ( WHOQOL-BREF ) and reduce addiction severity index ( ASI ) scores among participants over time .
OST program participants have noted that improvement in quality of life is one of the most important variables to their reduction in drug use .
However , there is little systematic underst and ing of WHOQOL-BREF and ASI domain changes among OST participants in low and middle-income countries ( LMIC ) .
Buprenorphine versus methadone in the treatment of opioid dependence: self-reports, urinalysis, and addiction severity index.
This article reports results for patients who completed the 16-week maintenance phase of a double-blind clinical trial comparing buprenorphine ( N = 43 ; average dose = 9.0 mg/day sublingually ) with methadone ( N = 43 ; average dose = 54 mg/day orally ) in the outpatient treatment of opioid dependence . In addition to pharmacotherapy , treatment during the clinical trial included individual counseling , weekly group therapy , and on-site medical services . Patients in both medication groups showed significant and substantial improvements over time in areas of psychosocial functioning , as assessed by the Addiction Severity Index , rates of urinalysis tests positive for opioids , and self-reports of opioid withdrawal symptoms , illicit opioid use , and cocaine use .  Buprenorphine and methadone produced very similar outcomes on the wide array of outcome measures assessed , and improvements for both groups were large and occurred rapidly after treatment entry . A trend toward continued improvement in opioid-positive urines over time was noted for the buprenorphine but not the methadone group . These results provide further evidence of the efficacy of buprenorphine in the treatment of opioid dependence and provide a characterization of the time course of effects for buprenorphine and methadone . In addition , these results demonstrate the benefits of drug abuse treatment , both for drug and alcohol use and in other areas of psychosocial functioning
Dosage of pharmacologic medication and length of follow-up did not affect changes in domain scores .
WHOQOL-BREF and ASI domain scoring is a useful tool in measuring overall quality of life and levels of addiction among OST participants .
BACKGROUND Opioid substitution treatment ( OST ) can increase quality of life ( WHOQOL-BREF ) and reduce addiction severity index ( ASI ) scores among participants over time .
OST program participants have noted that improvement in quality of life is one of the most important variables to their reduction in drug use .
However , there is little systematic underst and ing of WHOQOL-BREF and ASI domain changes among OST participants in low and middle-income countries ( LMIC ) .