Chronic Treatment with Opiate Agonists in Bulgaria - Assessing the Quality of Life Using SF 36 v. 2

Drug addictions to psychoactive substances are disorders with a complex bio-psycho-social genesis, which are characterized with chronic relapses. Substance addiction causes multifactorial damage to the normal functioning of individuals and requires a multicenter approach for the treatment process.

The aim of the study was to assess the quality of life of patients undergoing chronic treatment with the opiate agonist methadone using a standardized questionnaire method in Bulgarian.

The study included patients aged 18 to 40 years undergoing chronic treatment with methadone for at least six months. The study included 100 subjects. Seventy-six patients were from 5 clinical programs in Bulgaria; twenty- four clinically healthy age-matched subjects with no history of drug abuse, psychiatric and somatic diseases were the control group.

We found significant differences between patients and controls in all components of the survey (P<0.05). The patients had lower scores than the control group in the SF-36 in terms of all eight components and both the physical and mental component summaries of the SF-36-survey. Patients compared between the groups by dose, duration of treatment with methadone and period of heroin abuse before initiating treatment did not show significant differences. There were no significant differences between patients with and without hepatitis C virus.

Opiate addiction is a state associated with poor quality of life. The duration of treatment, the methadone dose, period of heroin abuse before initiating treatment and illness of hepatitis C virus does not correlate with lower results.