A satisfaction survey of opioid-dependent clients at methadone treatment centres in Spain

A survey was carried out to evaluate the satisfaction with methadone treatment centres of methadone-maintained opioid-dependent patients from Spain. Independent interviewers asked 505 consecutively arriving clients from 20 randomly selected centres (14 conventional centres, two bus units, and four prisons) to participate; 370 (73.3%) clients agreed to fill out the questionnaire, and 351 (69.5%) completed it. Satisfaction was assessed using the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale for methadone treatment (VSSS-MT). The prison sub-sample (n=43) was excluded from overall analysis because survey acceptance and satisfaction was very different in prisons than in the other centres. Mean overall satisfaction in the non-prison sub-sample (n=308) was 3.5 (S.D.=0.6) on a 1-5 point scale (1=terrible; 5=excellent). The percentage of these clients who felt dissatisfied (VSSS-MT scores: < or =3) and satisfied (VSSS-MT scores: >3) was, by category: overall satisfaction, 15.9% dissatisfied, 84.1% satisfied; basic interventions, 16.0% versus 84.0%; specific interventions, 45.4% versus 54.6%; social worker skills, 33.8% versus 66.2%; psychologist skills, 38.5% versus 61.5%. The number of hours per week that the centre dispensed methadone was the only variable able to predict satisfaction. This regression model accounted for only 2.5% of the variance in VSSS-MT overall scores. These results show that Spanish clients are slightly satisfied with conventional centres and bus units, although they fail to detect specific variables that are strongly related to that satisfaction.