Opioid pharmacotherapy treatment cluster

Identifying and definitional attributes

• Health, Standard 28/04/2016

The Opioid pharmacotherapy treatment cluster defines:

• the number of prison entrants who have been on, or are currently on, an opioid pharmacotherapy treatment program; and
• the type of opioid pharmacotherapy treatment program a prison entrant has been on, or is on currently.

Collection and usage attributes

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 combines three data elements to provide information on a person's current and past OPT programs: The data elements are:
Person—previous opioid pharmacotherapy treatment program indicator, prisoner health yes/no/unknown code N
Person—current opioid pharmacotherapy treatment program indicator, prisoner health yes/no/unknown code N and
Person—type of opioid pharmacotherapy treatment, code N.

The OPT cluster defines the following information:

Data is collected at the reception assessment on the National Prisoner Health Data Collection Prison Entrants form. Respondents may respond 'yes' to both 'on it now' and 'in the past'.

Source and reference attributes

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Kastelic A, Pont J & Stover H 2008. Opioid substitution treatment in custodial settings: a practical guide. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag.

Relational attributes