15-Year survival and retention of patients in a general hospital-affiliated methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) center in Israel

Abstract We have extended our previous 10-year follow-up study of MMT retention for another 5 years and added data on survival of all patients ever admitted to our MMT clinic (6/1993 to 6/2007). Data were calculated from admission to MMT until leaving, death, or study closure (6/2008). Ninety-four of a total of 613 patients (4711.6 person-years [py]) died. Cancer was the primary cause of death for those who remained in treatment, and overdose for those who left MMT. Longer survival ( p = 0.051) with a trend for a lower mortality rate ( p = 0.08) was noted among the 464 patients who stayed in treatment ≥1 year (1.8/100 py), compared with the 149 patients who left MMT