Severely addicted heroin users benefit from heroin maintenance programme
Heroin maintenance is a controversial approach to the rehabilitation of
opiate addicts. Researchers from Geneva randomised 51 severely addicted
subjects to either immediate or delayed entry into a heroin maintenance
programme (controls were given other treatments, mostly methadone
maintenance) (p 13). Most experimental patients completed 6 months in
the programme, taking about 0.5 g heroin a day intravenously. At
follow up the experimental group reported better mental health and
social functioning, less crime, and a sharp reduction in consumption of
street heroin. But they fared no better than controls in work,
commercial sex, and use of street drugs other than opiates.
Surprisingly, only a minority of control subjects wanted to enter the
heroin maintenance programme at the end of the study. The authors
conclude that heroin maintenance is effective as a second line
treatment for opiate addiction.
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- Randomised trial of heroin maintenance programme for addicts who fail in conventional drug treatments
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BMJ 1998 317: 13-18.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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