Opioid substitution treatment in Bulgaria (2012 – 2025)

Prevalence of psychoactive substance use Prevalence of medication use Prevalence of drug use Drug Prevention

Treatment Supply Treatment Demand Health consequences Harm reduction

Drug-related crimes Drug market Drug use and prison Monitoring of publications Attitudes to legal framework changes

Database (2001 – 2025).xlsx

Number of programmes and clients in opioid substitution treatment (2012 – 2025)

	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Number of OST programmes	31	30	30	30	32	30	30	30	29	28	28	28	28	26
Number of cities with OST programme	14	14	14	14	16	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13
Number of slots available	5171	4642	4632	4258	4377	4037	4122	4102	3874	3727	3636	3627	3536	3081
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	3404	3568	3404	3423	3338	3247	3181	3072	3031	2975	2850	2833	2676	2438
Proprortion (%) of slots occupied/available	65.83	76.86	73.49	80.39	76.26	80.43	77.17	74.89	78.24	79.82	78.38	78.11	75.68	79.13
Treatment with Methadone
Number of slots available	4681	4242	4252	4010	4115	3822	3907	3899	3700	3578	3503	3499	3408	2980
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	3289	3424	3267	3264	3211	3124	3058	2959	2936	2885	2762	2746	2593	2371
Proprortion (%) of slots occupied/available	70.26	80.72	76.83	81.40	78.03	81.74	78.27	75.89	79.35	80.63	78.85	78.48	76.09	79.56
Treatment with Substitol
Number of slots available	460	225	241	220	233	196	191	185	158	138	124	120	121	94
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	115	141	137	159	127	123	123	113	95	90	88	87	83	67
Proprortion (%) of slots occupied/available	25.00	62.67	56.85	72.27	54.51	62.76	64.40	61.08	60.13	65.22	70.97	72.50	68.60	71.28
Treatment with Buprenorphine
Number of slots available	30	175	139	28	29	19	24	18	16	11	9	8	7	7
Number of slots occupied at 31.12		3
State programmes
Number of OST programmes	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Number of slots available	600	541	541	510	610	605	595	655	555	555	555	555	555	555
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	484	468	456	460	538	540	527	499	523	508	491	488	491	493
Proprortion (%) of slots occupied/available	80.67	86.51	84.29	90.20	88.20	89.26	88.57	76.18	94.23	91.53	88.47	87.93	88.47	88.83
Municipality programmes
Number of OST programmes	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Number of slots available	850	800	850	820	700	680	680	680	680	580	580	490	490	440
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	718	739	646	678	568	512	489	451	431	418	374	354	324	318
Proprortion (%) of slots occupied/available	84.47	92.38	76.00	82.68	81.14	75.29	71.91	66.32	63.38	72.07	64.48	72.24	66.12	72.27
Private programmes
Number of OST programmes	22	21	21	21	23	21	21	21	20	19	19	19	19	18
Number of slots available	3721	3301	3241	2928	3067	2752	2847	2767	2639	2592	2501	2582	2491	2086
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	2202	2361	2302	2285	2232	2195	2165	2122	2077	2049	1985	1991	1861	1627
Proprortion (%) of slots occupied/available	59.18	71.52	71.03	78.04	72.77	79.76	76.04	76.69	78.70	79.05	79.37	77.11	74.71	78.00

Sex and age of opioid substitution treatment clients (2012 – 2025)

	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Number of slots occupied at 31.12	3404	3568	3404	3423	3338	3247	3181	3072	3031	2975	2850	2833	2676	2438
Males	2775	2901	2761	2781	2725	2647	2614	2525	2467	2424	2320	2310	2189	1999
Females	629	667	643	642	613	600	567	547	564	551	530	523	487	439
Mean age (total)	31.51	32.44	33.38	34.21	35.10	36.03	37.06	38.06	38.92	39.82	40.71	41.57	42.60	43.59
Mean age (males)	31.75	32.68	33.64	34.45	35.36	36.31	37.35	38.30	39.19	40.10	40.98	41.87	42.85	43.78
Mean age (females)	30.45	31.40	32.25	33.19	33.94	34.77	35.68	36.96	37.73	38.58	39.55	40.27	41.51	42.72
Age groups
15-19	10	12	9	5	6	4	1	2	1					1
20-24	226	172	111	81	66	57	36	23	21	16	12	13	12	11
25-29	974	812	583	494	354	256	205	136	90	82	68	59	44	30
30-34	1479	1607	1475	1349	1156	948	710	536	416	310	228	198	148	97
35-39	503	668	882	1077	1244	1338	1399	1313	1222	1016	844	643	472	345
40-44	120	177	230	274	345	448	586	771	945	1130	1177	1245	1121	950
45-49	37	55	53	73	95	118	154	189	222	289	358	480	643	736
50-54	23	30	29	32	31	36	38	46	58	70	93	113	148	172
55-59	21	24	19	22	23	20	27	30	26	28	30	39	42	54
60-64	7	5	7	9	11	15	16	18	21	23	23	24	24	21
>=65	4	6	6	7	7	76	9	8	9	11	16	19	22	21
Males
15-19	7	4	2	2	3	3		1	1					1
20-24	154	114	63	45	38	32	16	11	10	9	7	8	7	9
25-29	762	626	445	366	248	180	139	91	59	45	40	28	30	22
30-34	1236	1334	1214	1104	944	748	561	419	305	222	163	140	96	67
35-39	441	579	752	919	1060	1138	1189	1101	1003	830	671	510	377	260
40-44	102	150	193	234	297	384	504	661	810	967	1002	1050	932	788
45-49	29	43	44	57	78	99	132	160	190	249	310	420	558	635
50-54	18	25	22	23	22	29	30	37	46	54	74	92	122	143
55-59	17	18	16	18	19	16	22	22	18	20	22	28	32	42
60-64	5	3	5	7	10	12	13	15	17	18	18	19	17	15
>=65	4	5	5	6	6	6	8	7	8	10	13	15	18	17
Females
15-19	3	8	7	3	3	1	1	1
20-24	72	58	48	36	28	25	20	12	11	7	5	5	3	2
25-29	212	186	138	128	106	76	66	45	31	37	29	31	14	8
30-34	243	273	261	245	212	200	149	117	111	88	65	58	52	30
35-39	62	89	130	158	184	200	210	212	219	186	173	133	95	85
40-44	18	27	37	40	48	64	82	110	135	163	175	195	189	162
45-49	8	12	9	16	17	19	22	29	32	40	48	60	85	101
50-54	5	5	7	9	9	7	8	9	12	16	19	21	26	29
55-59	4	6	3	4	4	4	5	8	8	8	8	11	10	12
60-64	2	2	2	2	1	3	3	3	4	5	5	5	7	6
>=65		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	4	4	4