Table 3.
Items and factor loadings in the original abstinence-oriented scale
| Original abstinence-oriented items | Original factor loadings |
OMT staff | Harm reduction staff | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factor loadings | Squared multiple correlations† | Factor loadings | Squared multiple correlations† | |||
| Confrontation is necessary in the treatment of drug addicts | 0.53 | 0.358 | 0.128 | 0.556 | 0.309 | |
| Left to themselves, most methadone patients would stay in maintenance for life | 0.60 | 0.007 | < 0.001 | 0.013 | < 0.001 | |
| OMT services should be expanded so all narcotic addicts who want OMT can receive it | 0.62 | 0.238 | 0.057 | 0.246 | 0.061 | |
| Abstinence from all opioids (including methadone) should be the principal goal of maintenance treatment | 0.60 | 0.516 | 0.266 | 0.531 | 0.282 | |
| Methadone maintenance patients who continue to use illicit opiates should have their dose of methadone reduced | 0.77 | 0.699 | 0.489 | 0.457 | 0.209 | |
| No limits should be set on the duration of methadone maintenance | 0.64 | 0.260 | 0.067 | 0.514 | 0.265 | |
| Methadone should be gradually withdrawn once a maintenance patient has ceased using illicit opiates | 0.62 | 0.193 | 0.037 | 0.558 | 0.311 | |
| It is unethical to deny a narcotic addict OMT | 0.54 | 0.284 | 0.080 | 0.334 | 0.112 | |
| OMT patients who ignore repeated warnings to stop using illicit opiates should be gradually withdrawn off methadone | 0.76 | 0.659 | 0.434 | 0.594 | 0.353 | |
| Maintenance patients should only be given enough methadone to prevent the onset of withdrawals | 0.59 | 0.115 | 0.013 | 0.248 | 0.062 | |
| The clinician should encourage patients to remain in methadone maintenance for at least three to four years | 0.51 | 0.036 | 0.001 | -0.123 | 0.015 | |
| It is unethical to maintain addicts on methadone indefinitely | 0.58 | 0.354 | 0.126 | 0.385 | 0.148 | |
| OMT patients who continue to abuse non-opioid drugs (e.g. benzodiazepines) should have their dose of OMT medication reduced. | 0.60 | 0.602 | 0.363 | 0.530 | 0.281 | |
| The clinician's principal role is to prepare methadone maintenance patients for drug-free living | 0.56 | 0.526 | 0.277 | 0.464 | 0.216 | |
Items in italics omitted from exploratory analysis of a new attitudinal scale
† The extent that the variance of the measured variable is explained by the latent factor.