Exploration of longitudinal injectable opiate treatment (ELIOT)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Research to determine the role of injectable opiate treatment for chronic opiate dependence within the patient’s journey through recovery.
IRAS ID
107748
Contact name
Victoria L. Brooks
Contact email
Research summary
Supervised Injectable Heroin (SIH) has been demonstrated to be an effective second line treatment for opiate drug injectors who persist in injecting illicit heroin despite receiving conventional opiate substitution treatment - eg. oral methadone - (Strang et al., 2010, Haasen et al., 2007, March et al., 2006). There have been six Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) conducted worldwide (e.g., Perneger et al., 1998; van den Brink et al., 2003; March et al., 2006; Haasen et al.,2007; Oviedo-Joekes, 2009), and all have reported significantly higher retention to treatment and reduced illicit drug use amongst the SIH group, compared to those receiving oral methadone at 6 months of treatment. Five studies examine longitudinal trajectory of this treatment - e.g., Verthein et al (2008) and Rehm et al. (2001) who conducted two and six year cohort studies respectively - however, no studies examine patient experience of receiving injectable treatment. The UK RIOTT trial (Strang et al., 2010) examined the effectiveness of SIH treatment and found significantly lower street heroin use (compared to oral or supervised injectable methadone) at 6 months. We seek to describe the experiences and outcomes of patients who received (and staff who administered) injectable treatment, through in-depth qualitative case-studies, in order to place injectable treatment within the patients' journey of recovery. The patients' personal experience will be described in order to understand motivations, decisions, impacts, goals & outcomes associated with this unique treatment. We will describe clinicians' experiences through interview, and clinical decisions through case-note review. Both phases will help place this treatment within the recovery journey, e.g., how long should patients be maintained on injectable treatment, and what are appropriate next steps.
REC name
London - Dulwich Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0589
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion