Introduction: Methadone maintenance treatment is effective in reducing opiate use, related crime and HIV risk be- haviors. However, the number of patients dropping out of treatment or continue misusing drugs are significant. Pri- mary screening of such patients could be useful in the development of guidelines targeted to prevent such incident. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of good treatment responders and whether socio-demographic factors and methadone dosage are associated with good responses. Methods: Respondents were studied from No- vember 2009 until April 2010 and involved all patients that had undergone methadone therapy from November 2005 to November 2009. Data was obtained from medical and pharmacy records. Missing data was obtained directly from patients via direct interviewing. Patients were considered to have a good response if they stay in the programme and have negative urinalysis result within 6 months of enrolment. Results: 66 out of 104 patients have a good response in methadone therapy. There is an association between good response in methadone therapy and educational level (p=0.045) and district of origin (p=0.041). However, there were no associations with methadone dosage. Conclusion: Higher educational level of at least secondary school education was found to be a good predic- tor of good response to methadone therapy. Patients who originated from nearby areas have better outcomes. This could be due to the direct observation therapy which could have an effect on non-compliance of patients who lived far away. This suggests the need to provide methadone therapy in local areas for better accessibility and compliance.
Introduction: This study is part the Investigator Initiated Research (IIR) project under the mental health suicide and para suicide cluster. Self-harm is an important predictor of suicide and leaves a significant long-lasting psychological effect. Despite the increasing prevalence of rate of self-harm, very little research had been done in Asian countries. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of self-harm in selected hospitals, demographic profiles and factors associated with development of self-harm. Methods: This is a multi-centred cross sectional study. Six months of data collection was performed between the 1st November 2013 and 30th April 2014. All cases that were identified to have carried out Self-Harm were interviewed using The World Health Organization (WHO) SUPRE-MISS Ques- tionnaire Annexe 1 which had been adapted to the Malaysian culture by the research committee members. Results: A total of 99 samples were obtained for this study. They mostly came from low socioeconomic background. Majority of the patients were females, and this was consistent with studies worldwide. Poisoning by pesticides was the most frequent method of choice and about 30% of the patients had previous attempts. Conclusion: Sociodemographic factors play a significant role in self-harm. It is important to know the sociodemographic profile to identify which group of people are at risk and intervention can be focused.