Psychiatric comorbidity in methadone maintained patients

Diagnosing comorbid psychiatric disorders in methadone maintained patients may help to identify subgroups with different outcomes and needs for treatment. In this study, 75 methadone maintenance clinic patients in treatment longer than 30 days were assessed with the Addiction Severity Index, Global Assessment Scale and Mini-Mental Status Exam, and were interviewed for DSM-III-R psychiatric diagnosis using the computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Psychiatric diagnoses were prevalent in the sample with depression, phobic disorders, antisocial personality and generalized anxiety the most common. Both number of DSM-III-R diagnoses and severity of psychopathology were correlated with outcome measures such as concurrent drug abuse, family-social problems and employment status. Overall, the results indicate that comorbid psychopathology is a significant variable in methadone maintenance patients. Clinicians working with this group should attend to these patients' needs for treatment of comorbid disorders.