Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study
Abstract Background Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the self-reported satisfaction among the patients who re...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Harm Reduction Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-023-00808-8 |
| _version_ | 1797801514032431104 |
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| author | Rune Ellefsen Linda Elise Couëssurel Wüsthoff Espen Ajo Arnevik |
| author_facet | Rune Ellefsen Linda Elise Couëssurel Wüsthoff Espen Ajo Arnevik |
| author_sort | Rune Ellefsen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the self-reported satisfaction among the patients who receive this treatment. This study presents the first empirical findings about the patients’ experiences of, and satisfaction with, HAT in the Norwegian context. Methods Qualitative in-depth interviews with 26 patients in HAT were carried out one to two months after their enrollment. Analysis sought to identify the main benefits and challenges that the research participants experienced with this treatment. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify the main areas of benefits and challenges. The benefits were weighed against the challenges in order to assess the participants’ overall level of treatment satisfaction. Results Analysis identified three different areas of experienced benefits and three areas of challenges of being in this treatment. It outlines how the participants’ everyday lives are impacted by being in the treatment and how this, respectively, results from the treatment’s medical, relational, or configurational dimensions. We found an overall high level of treatment satisfaction among the participants. The identification of experienced challenges reveals factors that reduce satisfaction and thus may hinder treatment retention and positive treatment outcomes. Conclusions The study demonstrates a novel approach to qualitatively investigate patients’ treatment satisfaction across different treatment dimensions. The findings have implications for clinical practice by pointing out key factors that inhibit and facilitate patients’ satisfaction with HAT. The identified importance of the socio-environmental factors and relational aspect of the treatment has further implications for the provision of opioid agonist treatment in general. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:51:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8637b7d374154173817f14fb6bb8cf95 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1477-7517 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:51:38Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Harm Reduction Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-8637b7d374154173817f14fb6bb8cf952023-06-18T11:10:38ZengBMCHarm Reduction Journal1477-75172023-06-0120111410.1186/s12954-023-00808-8Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative studyRune Ellefsen0Linda Elise Couëssurel Wüsthoff1Espen Ajo Arnevik2Section for Clinical Addiction Research, Oslo University HospitalSection for Clinical Addiction Research, Oslo University HospitalSection for Clinical Addiction Research, Oslo University HospitalAbstract Background Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) involves supervised dispensing of medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) for people with opioid use disorder. Clinical evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of HAT, but little is known about the self-reported satisfaction among the patients who receive this treatment. This study presents the first empirical findings about the patients’ experiences of, and satisfaction with, HAT in the Norwegian context. Methods Qualitative in-depth interviews with 26 patients in HAT were carried out one to two months after their enrollment. Analysis sought to identify the main benefits and challenges that the research participants experienced with this treatment. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify the main areas of benefits and challenges. The benefits were weighed against the challenges in order to assess the participants’ overall level of treatment satisfaction. Results Analysis identified three different areas of experienced benefits and three areas of challenges of being in this treatment. It outlines how the participants’ everyday lives are impacted by being in the treatment and how this, respectively, results from the treatment’s medical, relational, or configurational dimensions. We found an overall high level of treatment satisfaction among the participants. The identification of experienced challenges reveals factors that reduce satisfaction and thus may hinder treatment retention and positive treatment outcomes. Conclusions The study demonstrates a novel approach to qualitatively investigate patients’ treatment satisfaction across different treatment dimensions. The findings have implications for clinical practice by pointing out key factors that inhibit and facilitate patients’ satisfaction with HAT. The identified importance of the socio-environmental factors and relational aspect of the treatment has further implications for the provision of opioid agonist treatment in general.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-023-00808-8Heroin-assisted treatmentDiacetylmorphineOpioid use disorderPatient satisfactionQualitative researchSocio-environmental factors |
| spellingShingle | Rune Ellefsen Linda Elise Couëssurel Wüsthoff Espen Ajo Arnevik Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study Harm Reduction Journal Heroin-assisted treatment Diacetylmorphine Opioid use disorder Patient satisfaction Qualitative research Socio-environmental factors |
| title | Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study |
| title_full | Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study |
| title_fullStr | Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study |
| title_short | Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study |
| title_sort | patients satisfaction with heroin assisted treatment a qualitative study |
| topic | Heroin-assisted treatment Diacetylmorphine Opioid use disorder Patient satisfaction Qualitative research Socio-environmental factors |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-023-00808-8 |
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