Should heroin be prescribed to heroin misusers? Yes

Comparison of oral preparations of heroin and methadone to stabilise opiate misusers as inpatients.

Heroin maintenance for chronic heroin-dependent individuals.

BACKGROUND Several types of medications have been used for stabilizing heroin users: Methadone, Buprenorphine and levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol (LAAM.) The present review focuses on the prescription of heroin to heroin-dependent individuals. OBJECTIVES To compare heroin maintenance to methadone or other substitution treatments for opioid dependence regarding: efficacy and acceptability, retainin...

Should clofibrate still be prescribed?

Cost utility analysis of co-prescribed heroin compared with methadone maintenance treatment in heroin addicts in two randomised trials.

OBJECTIVE To determine the cost utility of medical co-prescription of heroin compared with methadone maintenance treatment for chronic, treatment resistant heroin addicts. DESIGN Cost utility analysis of two pooled open label randomised controlled trials. SETTING Methadone maintenance programmes in six cities in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS 430 heroin addicts. INTERVENTIONS Inhalable o...

Injectable heroin - effective treatment for opiate misusers, but is it cost-effective?

Implementation of injectable heroin treatment for patients with chronic heroin dependence unresponsive to oral methadone maintenance treatment has stagnated, even though the evidence for its effectiveness in this population continues to accrue. This is due to a range of political and environmental factors, not least of which is the cost of the treatment. The article by Byford et al in this issu...