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New Heroin Addiction Treatment? Heroin

Scientists caution that controversial treatment has its downsides

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 23, 2009 11:42 AM CDT

(Newser) – Medical heroin may be effectively used to treat heroin addiction, Canadian scientists have discovered, but their dramatic findings may be railroaded over political and financial concerns, ABC News reports. Injectable diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin, resulted in 67% less illegal activity and illicit drug use after one year when compared with 47.7% for oral methadone, the standard treatment for opioid addiction. Despite the results, one author cautions that methadone should remain an addict’s “first-line treatment.”

In the study, patients who received diacetylmorphine showed greater improvement over their methadone counterparts in drug use, psychiatric status, employment satisfaction, and social relations. But the diacetylmorphine group was more prone to overdoses and seizures, and at $6,300, diacetylmorphine treatment can double the cost of methadone treatment. While the approach is already used in Switzerland and the Netherlands, Germany and Spain have balked at the idea. Scientists say they’ll wait to see if the treatment finds support across the Atlantic.

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A sign hangs in the hallway of a recently opened Bupenorphine clinic November 4, 2002 at the University of Vermont at Burlington. (Getty Images)

Injectable diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin, was shown to be an effective alternative to oral methadone in treating opioid addiction that had not responded to previous treatment. (Shutter Stock)

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Our safety data suggest that diacetylmorphine should be delivered in settings where prompt medical intervention is available.
- Dr. Martin Schechter, researcher

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 8 comments

jagerhans

Aug 26, 2009 11:56 AM CDT

OT : the very idea of privately-run jails is abominable . making prisons a business is loathsome and a thing so deeply wrong, counterproducing and immoral that in comparison it makes death penalty appear alright. maybe you perceive this in a totally different way but for me this is just like dealing heroin or being a hangman, it is earning money over human sufferings, no mattter who those humans are. so the more people are jailed the more money they get... and those who run such businesess surely have important friends in the govt. Ok, you just gave me one more reason to avoid your country, undoubtedly fascinating but weird and creepy as it can get.

cognitivefilter

Aug 24, 2009 3:17 AM CDT

medical heroin! i bet the medical cannabis opposers are going to have a (poppy) field day

NxBigmouthery

Aug 23, 2009 9:15 AM CDT

Buprenorphine is also a good treatment for opioid addiction and should not be overlooked.

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drug addiction • heroin • scientific study • methadone

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New Heroin Addiction Treatment? Heroin