Abstract
Several studies reported high rates of psychiatric commorbidity among methadone patients. We examined the relationships of measures of psychopathology to outcomes of screening urine tests for cocaine, opiates, and benzodiazepines in a sample of 56 methadone patients. They also completed the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). The highest scales in the SCL-90-R profile of our patients were those indicating somatic discomfort, anger, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and also obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms (scores above the 39th percentile). The only significant correlations between urine tests and SCL-90-R psychopathology were those involving benzodiazepines: patients with urine tests positive for benzodiazepines had lower social self-confidence (r=0.48), were more obsessive-compulsive (r=0.44), reported a higher level of anger (r=0.41), of phobic tendencies (r=40), of anxiety (r=0.39), and of paranoid tendencies (r=0.38), and also reported more frequent psychotic symptoms (r=0.43).
Highlights
Several studies have documented high rates of psychiatric commorbidity in methadone patients: 63.6% reported by Weizman et al.,1 76% by Callaly et al.,[2] and 47% in Brooner et al.[3]
Our study examined the relationship of psychological measures of psychopathology to outcomes of screening urine tests for cocaine, opiates, and benzodiazepines
In the average SCL-90-R profile, the only mean score above the 50th percentile, i.e., above the median for the general psychiatric population, was on the scale measuring somatic complaints. This suggests that methadone patients might more frequently report somatic problems than would other psychiatric patients
Summary
Several studies have documented high rates of psychiatric commorbidity in methadone patients: 63.6% reported by Weizman et al.,1 76% by Callaly et al.,[2] and 47% in Brooner et al.[3] Mood disorders preponderantly in the form of depressive symptoms, anxiety disorder, or the antisocial personality, are reported in many of such prevalence studies. Patients who abuse benzodiazepines while in methadone treatment have worse treatment outcomes.[4] Bleich et al reported that methadone patients who were abusing benzodiazepine currently abused more cocaine, heroin and cannabis They experienced significantly more psychopathology and negative mood.[5] Our study examined the relationship of psychological measures of psychopathology to outcomes of screening urine tests for cocaine, opiates, and benzodiazepines
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