The development and validation of the pandemic medication-assisted treatment questionnaire for the assessment of pandemic crises impact on medication management and administration for patients with opioid use disorders

Christonikos Leventelis; Alexandra Katsouli; Vasileios Stavropoulos; Anna Karasavvidou; Panagiotis Papadopoulos; Petros T Barmpas; Sotiris Tasoulis; Aristidis S Veskoukis; Maria Tsironi

doi:10.1177/14550725221135574

The development and validation of the pandemic medication-assisted treatment questionnaire for the assessment of pandemic crises impact on medication management and administration for patients with opioid use disorders

Nordisk Alkohol Nark. 2023 Feb;40(1):76-94. doi: 10.1177/14550725221135574. Epub 2022 Nov 8.

Authors

Christonikos Leventelis¹, Alexandra Katsouli², Vasileios Stavropoulos², Anna Karasavvidou², Panagiotis Papadopoulos², Petros T Barmpas³, Sotiris Tasoulis³, Aristidis S Veskoukis⁴, Maria Tsironi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Organization Against Drugs, Athens, Greece; Nursing Department, University of Peloponnese, Panarcadian Hospital Erythrou, Tripoli, Greece.
² Organization Against Drugs, Athens, Greece.
³ Department of Computer science and Biomedical Informatics, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece.
⁴ Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece.
⁵ Nursing Department, University of Peloponnese, Panarcadian Hospital Erythrou, Tripoli, Greece.

Abstract

Pandemic and the globally applied restriction measures mainly affect vulnerable population groups, such as patients with opioid use disorders. Towards inhibiting SARS-Cov-2 spread, the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) programs follow strategies targeting the reduction of in-person psychosocial interventions and an increase of take-home doses. However, there is no available instrument to examine the impact of such modifications on diverse health aspects of patients under MAT. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the PANdemic Medication-Assisted Treatment Questionnaire (PANMAT/Q) to address the pandemic effect on the management and administration of MAT. In total, 463 patients under ΜΑΤ participated. Our findings indicate that PANMAT/Q has been successfully validated exerting reliability and validity. It can be completed within approximately 5 min, and its implementation in research settings is advocated. PANMAT/Q could serve as a useful tool to identify the needs of patients under MAT being at high risk of relapse and overdose.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; buprenorphine; medication-assisted treatment; methadone; opioid addiction; questionnaire.