Investigate the emotional status and social support of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients to provide guidance for a pertinent intervention.

We conducted a case-control study between 86 patients of Shanghai Changning community based methadone maintenance treatment and 93 controls from Shanghai Changning district. They were investigated via questionnaires, including Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Social Support Scale.

The SDS scores were significantly higher in MMT group than in control group (52.7±11.4 vs 39.9±6.4, P< 0.01); the total scores of social support and subjective support, objective support and the 3 factors of support utilization were lower in MMT group compared with control group ([17.9±6.5 vs 20.3±7.8], [5.2±1.7 vs 7.4±1.4], P< 0.05); the scores of problem solving and recourse factors were lower in MMT group than in control group ([0.74±0.18 vs 0.91±0.06], [0.64±0.20 vs 0.69±0.06], P< 0.05).

The depression symptoms are prevalent in patients. The social support is low and the problem solving and recourse approaches are less utilized in patients. Our results show that it is necessary to implement the integrative intervention of MMT patients for improving the full recovery of their social function.