Heroin on prescription keeps some addicts in treatment
schemes
Heroin-assisted substitution treatment might be an
effective option for chronically addicted patients for whom other treatments
have failed, say Swiss researchers.
Professor Jürgen Rehm, Addiction Research Institute,
Zurich, and colleagues assessed 1,969 opioid-dependent drug users, who
were receiving heroin-substitution for their addiction. They found that
there was a high rate of treatment retention among participants, with
1,378 patients continuing for at least one year. They add that among those
who dropped out of the programmes most left to start another treatment.
Less than 100 patients left because of lapses in medication or lack of
compliance.
The researchers also assessed a subgroup of patients
who were followed for 18 months. They found that the health of patients
who had had severe somatic or mental problems at the start of treatment
improved. Other variables that were positively affected by heroin-substitution
treatment included skin infections and anxiety states (Lancet 2001;358:1417).
In an accompanying commentary, Dr Ernest Drucker,
Montefiore Medical Centre, New York, commented that the study should dispel
fears that availability of heroin undermines interest in drug-free treatment
(ibid, p1385).
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