• Peter N Johnson, Jamie L Miller, Tracy M Hagemann, Christine Castro, and Donald Harrison.
• University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
• Ann Pharmacother. 2014 Feb 1; 48 (2): 187-95.

BackgroundMethadone is commonly prescribed for children with opioid abstinence syndrome (OAS) as a taper schedule over several days to weeks. The Medication Taper Complexity Score (MTCS) was developed to evaluate outpatient methadone tapers.ObjectiveTo further validate the MTCS and determine if it is a reliable tool for clinicians to use to assess the complexity of methadone tapers for OAS.MethodsAn expert panel of pediatric clinical pharmacists was convened. Panel members were provided 9 methadone tapers (ie, "easy," "medium," and "difficult") to determine construct and face validity of the MTCS. The primary objective was to further establish reliability and construct/face validity of the MTCS. The secondary objective was to assess the reliability of the MTCS within and between tapers. Instrument reliability was assessed using a Pearson correlation coefficient; with 0.8 as the minimum acceptable coefficient. Construct (divergent) validity was assessed via a repeated-measures ANOVA analysis (Bonferroni post hoc analyses) of the mean scores provided by panel members.ResultsSix panel members were recruited from various geographical locations. Panel members had 18.3 ± 5.5 years of experience, with practice expertise in general pediatrics, hematology/oncology, and the pediatric and neonatal intensive care unit. The MTCS had a reliability coefficient of .9949. There was vivid discrimination between the easy, medium, and difficult tapers; P = .001. The panel recommended minor modifications to the MTCS.ConclusionsThe MTCS was found to be a reliable and valid tool. Overall, the panel felt that the MTCS was easy to use and had potential applications in both practice and research.

16 keywords...

hide…