A harm reduction treatment, commonly abbreviated OAT, in which prescribed opioid agonists are given on an ongoing basis to people living with opioid use disorder; methadone maintenance treatment, its best known form, administers methadone to treat dependence on heroin or other opioids. Research associates opioid agonist therapy with roughly a 50 percent reduction in mortality among people with opioid use disorder, alongside decreased illicit substance use, better social functioning, and improved retention in treatment programs, as well as a more manageable withdrawal experience, cognitive improvement, and lower rates of HIV transmission among people who inject drugs. Treatment duration is individualized, varying with a person's physiology, environment and quality of life, reflecting the practice's harm reduction orientation toward survival, disease prevention and social reintegration rather than a fixed, one size fits all path to abstinence.
Facts
Origin YearSourced to the subject's own accountMarks the year methadone maintenance treatment began in the United States; methadone itself was introduced there as an analgesic in 1947. Practice ClassSourced to the subject's own accountPublic health, harm reduction 1 Classification
Practice ClassSourced to the subject's own accountConventional / Biomedical Practice 1 Connections
Associated With
Opioid agonist therapy and needle and syringe programmes are commonly co-delivered core pillars of harm reduction programming for people who inject drugs, a direct real-world practice-to-practice link.
In Branch
Opioid agonist therapy (SubLabel Harm Reduction Practice) is placed under the broad Public Health branch, matching this atlas's other harm-reduction practice, Needle and Syringe Programmes; no dedicated substance-use branch exists here.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Opioid agonist therapy
WikipediaOpioid agonist therapy article, lead paragraph, first sentence
Opioid agonist therapy (OAT) is a treatment in which prescribed opioid agonists are given to patients who live with opioid use disorder (OUD).
Opioid agonist therapy article, Methadone section
methadone has been used in maintenance treatment-also known as substitution treatment, or drug replacement therapy-since 1964
Program classification, entity description sentence
A harm reduction treatment, commonly abbreviated OAT, in which prescribed opioid agonists are given on an ongoing basis to people living with opioid use disorder.
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