Substitution and reincarceration. Elements for an analysis of a complex relationship

The study was carried out in remand centres. The patients described in the survey are consequently prisoners awaiting trial and convicts whose remaining sentence is less than one year or who are awaiting a transfer to an "établissement pour peine" (penal institutions, detention centres, etc. for convicted prisoners).

It has made it possible to describe the general profile of opioid-dependent prisoners but also to carry out a prospective study, the first of its kind in France, over a period of 24 months in order to assess the level of reincarceration among prisoners having received opioid substitution treatment (OST) compared to a control group of prisoners who did not receive an OST when beginning their period of detention. 

This analysis made it possible to identify the various factors associated with reincarceration. 

Finally, the survey has sought to highlight the differences in profile between those people receiving an OST when their period in detention began (for the first time or otherwise) and those whose substitution was interrupted or not renewed when they were incarcerated, which are both useful factors as decision-making aids, when it comes to identifying the predictive signs and indicators that a subject is about to abandon treatment (or anticipating abandonment of treatment).