Multimorbidity in patients enrolled in a community-based methadone maintenance treatment programme delivered through primary care

Multimorbidity, the co-existence of two or more (2+) long-term conditions in an individual, is common among problem drug abusers. To delineate the patterns, multimorbidity prevalence, and disease severity in patients enrolled in a community-based primary care methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programme. This was a retrospective cohort study ( =274). The comparator group consisted of mainstream primary care patients. Electronic medical record assessment was performed using the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale. Prevalence of multimorbidity across 2+ domains was significantly higher within the MMT sample at 88.7% (243/274) than the comparator sample at 51.8% (142/274),