The limited data available suggest that pathways into drug-related treatment and the types of treatment vary between regions

• Data from 61 countries suggest that pathways of referral vary by (sub)region: for example, in Africa, referral by friends and family or self-referral is most common, while in East and South-East Asia the criminal justice system plays a larger role.
• The types of treatment delivered also vary between regions, based on data from 44 countries: in the Americas, patients predominantly receive psychosocial and behavioural interventions and rehabilitation and aftercare, pharmacological interventions dominate Asia and Europe, and Africa reports a balanced mix of both types.
• Treatment approaches also depend on whether the primary drug of the treated person are opioids or not, with a higher proportion of pharmacological interventions among patients with primary drug opioids across all subregions with available data.
• Based on limited available data from fewer than 30 countries (mainly in the Americas and Europe), the most common psychosocial interventions are motivational approaches, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and community reinforcement, and the most common pharmacological intervention is opioid agonist maintenance therapy, although withdrawal management is very frequent as well.