Methadone Treatment for Heroin Dependence

Abstract

In substitution therapy for treatment of heroin addiction, methadone is the synthetic opi- oid agonist of first choice. Methadone doses vary depending on addict profile established by repeated evaluation. It studied a group of 82 patients both male and female, aged between 19 and 47 years, residing in Bucharest, with diagnosis of heroin addiction. They were voluntarily submitted in the methadone substitution treatment at a specialized treatment center for addiction in Bucharest. The study group was characterized in detail, taking into account demographic, comorbid and addiction characteristics, heroin use his- tory, treatment history, and clinical and paraclinical evaluation. The outcomes resulting from the study design on 82 heroin addict patients enrolled into a methadone main - tenance program highlighted: lowering of the onset age of heroin use, HVC infection comorbidity, and the extension of the treatment period due to the relapses. The results obtained by clinical, laboratory, and psychological complex evaluations in a correlative approach is essential both in initiating methadone treatment and monitoring the detox period but also in the supervision of methadone maintenance treatment. of at onset of the is sig nificantly different from the age of the patients at the onset of their drug consumption. The total duration of the consumption is statistically different from the duration of the consumption, previous to the first MMT.