Treatment for Opioid Dependent Offenders

Key DFM Personnel

Randy Brown, MD, PhD - Principal Investigator
Michele Gassman - Project coordinator

Funding

UW/ICTR

Summary

Pilot study to examine the feasibility of a primary care and a specialist treatment (methadone clinic) model of treatment for 15 offenders who are part of a jail diversion program known as "drug treatment court" in Dane County and the Treatment Alternative Program (TAP).

Goal

The questions addressed by future larger studies based upon our pilot-feasibility study center around whether access to primary health care as opposed to more traditional methadone treatment services will improve the health and criminal justice outcomes for participants.

Methodology

The study recruited 15 opioid-dependent enrolled in the Dane County Drug Treatment Court or Treatment Alternative Program (TAP), randomly assigned them to either a primary care regimen (primary care clinic with access to a primary care provider with license to prescribe buprenorphine, plus usual care through drug court or TAP) or specialty care (a methadone clinic; these participants will receive a daily administration of either methadone or buprenorphine in addition to the drug court or TAP program). Participants were treated for 12 months, and had a 6 week follow up visit post-intervention.