Encuesta sobre la satisfacción de los pacientes dependientes de heroína de la Comunidad de Valencia con los centros de tratamiento con metadona

Objective

To multidimensionally assess heroin-dependent patients’ satisfaction with methadone treatment centres from Valencia Region (Spain).

Method

An independent interviewer recruited 278 consecutively arriving patients from 12 randomly selected centres (9 conventional centres and 3 mobile methadone clinics) to participate in a survey that included the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale for Methadone Treatment (VSSS-MT).

Results

One hundred sixty-six (59.7%) patients agreed to participate. Mean overall VSSS-MT score was 3.5 (SD = 0.6), on a 1–5 point scale (1 = terrible; 5 = excellent). The percentage of patients who felt satisfied (VSSS-MT scores > 3) was, by category: overall satisfaction, 82.4%; basic interventions, 80.6%; specific interventions, 59.2%; social worker skills, 66.3%; psychologist skills, 71.6%. In a multiple regression analysis, methadone take-home privileges, lower number of days from the last dose adjustment, and being treated in a conventional (not mobile) methadone clinic appeared as independent predictors of satisfaction with methadone maintenance treatment. This regression model accounted for 9% of the variance in VSSS-MT overall scores.

Conclusions

The survey results show that heroin-dependent patients from Valencia Region are slightly satisfied with methadone treatment centres. The variables most strongly related to this satisfaction accounted for only a limited amount of the variance in VSSS-MT overall scores.