ABSTRACT
Addiction as a social, health problem with its specific complications threatens societies. High risk behaviors such as violence, self mutilation, tattooing, shared injections and unprotected sex behaviors are some of the problems in addicts that need to be treated. One of these treatments is methadone therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of methadone in prevention or reduction of high risk behaviors in clients of a MMT center of Shaheed Sadoughi University of medical sciences of Yazd. This study was done on 93 clients of a MMT center. Questionnaire for this study included items from MAP and questions about some other risky behaviors. This questionnaire was completed at onset of treatment and 6 months after. Data was analyzed with SPSS software program 89.2% of participants were married and 10.8% were single. 63.5% of them were in the 20-40 years age group. Most commonly abused substances were heroin and opium. Before onset of treatment, 37.6% of participants had history of imprisonment, 35.5% had shared injections, 32.3% had had unprotected sex, 22.6% had tattooing and 5.4% had mutilated their own selves. Only 36.6% didn't have any high risk behavior. These behaviors were more common in heroin users and in the 20-40 years age group. After onset of treatment and during 6 month of MMT, 86% of clients didn't have any risky behavior. Only 14% of them continued to have unsafe sex behaviors Addiction can cause high risk behaviors. Data in this paper suggests that young age, heroin use, low education level and no or inadequate information about addictive substances and their consequences are effective and important factors that cause high risk behaviors. Treatment of addicts with methadone maintenance therapy plays an important role in reduction of risky behaviors. Development of appropriate and more MMT centers are recommended