Opioid pharmacotherapy treatment (OPT) is a form of treatment for heroin or opiate dependence using prescribed opioid agonists, which have some properties similar or identical to those of heroin and morphine, including the effect on the brain, which alleviate withdrawal symptoms and block the craving for illicit opiates. The most common form of opioid pharmacotherapy treatment is methadone maintenance treatment. However, buprenorphine is also quite common in some countries (Kastelic et al. 2008).
The OPT program cluster comprises three data elements which provide information on a person's current and past OPT programs:
Person—previous opioid pharmacotherapy treatment program indicator, yes/no code N
Person—current opioid pharmacotherapy treatment program indicator, yes/no code N and
Person—type of opioid pharmacotherapy treatment, code N. | OPT program | Methadone | Methadone | Other | Other | | Current | Previous | Current | Previous | | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N | | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N | Y/N | | Never | | | | |
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