Abstract
Background:
Todays, methadone and buprenorphine maintaining treatment (MMT/BMT) is considered an effective method for opioid-dependent patients. It seems that lack of enough information among health care specialists including cardiologists about such treatments could result in some problems for patients such as relapse into addiction.Objectives:
This study aimed to investigate knowledge and attitude of cardiologists in Tehran, Iran, about MMT/BMT for opioid-dependent patients with a clinical picture of acute coronary syndrome.Materials and Methods:
In a multicentric analytical-observational study on clinical cardiologists of five teaching hospitals in Tehran, knowledge and attitude about MMT/BMT in patients with cardiovascular complains were assessed by an investigator-made self-reported questionnaire.Results:
Of a hundred invitation contacts, 55 cardiologists participated in the study (missing rate of 45%). The mean age of respondents was 42.23 3.13 and 76.4% were female. Only 49.1% of cardiologists answered to all the five questions correctly and most (92.7%) declared to have a little or moderate information about MMT/BMT.Conclusions:
It seems that physicians have low to moderate levels of knowledge regarding the treatment of patients receiving BMT/MMT. It is recommended to train physicians during some study courses about MMT/BMT to improve their knowledge in this field. Of course, participation in seminars and conferences about MMT/BMT can be another effective strategy to increase the level of awareness in health care professionals.Keywords
Methadone Buprenorphine Healthcare Providers Knowledge Attitudes
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© 2014, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.