The EMCDDA/Pompidou Group Treatment Demand Indicator Protocol: A European Core Item Set for Treatment Monitoring and Reporting

Abstract

Over the last decades inside and outside of Europe, treatment-based data have been used in epidemiological research on drugs and drug abuse. They offer information on hidden populations and allow to follow socially stigmatised behaviour. As this type of research can be done on rather low budgets, there are long-term projects run in many countries. Experts from the national systems in several EU member states have been working together to develop a common standard on the basis of the Pompidou Group (PG) Definitive Protocol. The items and basic definitions of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)/PG Treatment Demand Indicator Protocol are described, which plays an important role in the process of harmonisation of data collection for the EMCDDA. Implementation strategies are described, and future steps are discussed.

Decline in adolescent treatment admissions for methamphetamine use in Cape Town

“…The form is based on the instrument developed by the Pompidou Group in Europe in the early 1990s and, more recently, on the Treatment Demand Indicators (TDI) used by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. [6] To ensure data quality, treatment centre personnel regularly receive training in data collection, and completed forms are checked for missing information and possible miscoding. Forms are completed by treatment centre personnel upon admission or shortly thereafter.…”

The German Monitoring and Reporting System for the Treatment of Substance-Related Problems: A National System on the Basis of Aggregated Data

“…The Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) as the third partner in the DBDD has special responsibility and expertise in the field of prevention. Given this structure, it is clear that the above work groups run by the DHS are increasingly becoming part of DBDD activities targeted towards harmonisation of data from national treatment monitoring systems in the EU member states [6].…”

“…A statistical work group has been installed by the DHS which brings together representatives of different monitoring and reporting systems, and a core item set for treated clients has been published [5] as a common minimum standard between all systems. This already includes nearly all of the items of the European Treatment Demand Indicator Protocol (TDI) [6]. Another set of core items describing the treatment units, as well as standard tables for data exchange are under construction.…”

Prevalence of Problem Drug Use and Injecting Drug Use in Luxembourg: A Longitudinal and Methodological Perspective

“…Additionally, in the context of drug prevalence estimations, drug use surveillance systems predominantly relying on drug treatment data, also present serious limitations [22] such as possible delays between onset of drug use and first treatment demand [23], variable availability and accessibility of treatment facilities, exclusion of out-of-treatment subpopulations and possible lack of control mechanisms to avoid multiple counting [24]. …”