Opioid agonist treatment and patient outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in south east Sydney, Australia.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

In early 2020, many services modified their delivery of opioid treatment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to limit viral spread and maintain treatment continuity. We describe the changes to treatment and preliminary analysis of the association with patients' substance use and well-being.

Methods

A pre-post comparison of treatment conditions and patient self-reported outcomes using data extracted from electronic medical records in the 5 months before (December 2019-April 2020) and after (May 2020-September 2020) changes were implemented in three public treatment services in South Eastern Sydney Local Health District.

Results

Data are available for 429/460 (93%) patients. Few (21, 5%) dropped out of treatment. In the 'post' period there was significant

SUBMITTER: Lintzeris N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8652992 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature