Adherence and compliance to Methadone Maintenance Therapy among methadone patients in Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II

This study was done retrospectively and prospectively, whereby the patterns of adherence among patients attending Methadone Maintenance Therapy (MMT) clinic and their compliance to MMT in HRPZ II were investigated. Forty face-to-face confidential interviews with methadone-maintained patients attending were carried out. MMT patients who are HIV positive and currently on Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy (HAART) were excluded in this study. This is because in general those patients who are on HAART are able to comply with all the requirement and condition of the program since there is another counseling program regarding adherence and compliance for them. Based on this study, 35 patients (87.5%) had been good adherence because only 5 patients (12.5%) showed poor adherence to their prescribed methadone regime in the past 12 months. In term of compliance, only 2.5% of the patients showed poor compliance and the others showed good compliance to their methadone therapy. Criteria for compliance to methadone therapy included consumed methadone according to the prescriber’s direction, followed by without splitting dose, on time consumption (morning) and consuming entire methadone as once daily dose. Good compliance is defined when methadone is consumed according to all criteria stated. This study suggests that there is a need for other tools or methods for assessment of patients’ adherence. New approaches to improve adherence, including a more systematic monitoring of adherence to improve the effectiveness of methadone program are needed.