[Weight gain among the patients in methadone maintenance program as come-back to population norm]

Clinical experience reveals a weight increase among patients with opiate dependence after their admission to methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). The objective of the present study was to find out whether there was a significant weight increase among MMT patients, and if so, to what extent this change in weight differed from the existing statistical norm of the general population.

The sample consisted of 274 MMT patients of the CPLDZ Bratislava with the average age of 26.3 years, 69% were males. Only those patients were included into the study that had stayed in MMT for at least one year. Two main comparisons of their body mass index (BMI) were done: 1. at entry into MMT, and one year after entry; 2. a comparison of BMI one year after treatment entry with BMI of the general Slovak population. Underweight was present in 10% of the patients entering MMT, 72% had BMI within a normal range, 15% were overweight, and 3% were obese. A significant shift towards higher BMI categories was reported one year after treatment entry: 5%, 58%, 29% and 8%, respectively (p < 0.001), which is still significantly lower than in the general population: 4%, 49%, 34% a 13% (p < 0.001).

Our results indicate that weight increase in MMT patients should not be considered a direct side-effect, because it is not possible to differentiate between a drug effect and changed behavioural eating stereotypes that could be identical to those in the general population.