OBJECTIVE Both methadone and buprenorphine are effective therapy for heroin dependence. Efficacy is best documented for methadone maintenance therapy, but safety concerns limit its use. Buprenorphine offers lower overdose risk and improved access, but efficacy may be lower. The authors compared adaptive, buprenorphine-based stepped care to optimal methadone maintenance treatment. METHOD This ...

BACKGROUND Although methadone maintenance is effective in reducing injection drug use, needle sharing, and the overall mortality associated with opiate abuse, many health plans offer little or no access to methadone, and many methadone providers do not comply with treatment guidelines regarding dose, duration of treatment, or provision of ancillary services. Moral and political judgments have h...

BACKGROUND Methadone Maintenance Treatment is a useful method for opioid dependents, which results in harm reduction and increased quality of life in opioid dependents. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in addicts is higher than in the general population which can interfere with the course and treatment of substance dependents and decrease the efficacy of treatment. METHODS This descrip...

results results showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of depression and temping beliefs (p < 0.0001). in other words, the results showed that cognitive-behavior therapy reduces depression and improves craving beliefs of abusers under methadone maintenance treatment. objectives this study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of co...

of prescribing injectable heroin and methadone to opiate-dependent drug users: associated health gains and harm reductions. Active heroin injectors' perceptions and use of methadone maintenance treatment: cynical performance or self-prescribed risk reduction? Substance It takes your heart: the image of methadone maintenance in the addict world and its effects on recruitment into treatment. Opia...

  Background: Today, an increasing trend to methadone as an alternative maintenance treatment for opiate dependence in adults is observed; children for both intentional and accidental reasons are exposed to serious and fetal effects of methadone. We aimed to investigate effects of methadone on children and sexual functioning among adults in Iranian popula...

Background: Substance abusers are not able to withdraw drugs eternally despite the abundance of different treatments; therefore, withdrawal programs are not quite successful and notwithstanding all the successes of methadone maintenance therapy, there are some defects found in the manner this treatment is applied. Thus, this study was conducted to explore the experience of drug abusers regardin...

Abstract Background: Methadone maintenance therapy is a treatment of choice for opiate addiction. Understanding opiate dependents’ experiences of patients' treatment is a key to continue the treatment and can provide help to revise the standards of methadone centers and improve the quality of treatment. This study aimed to describe the essence and structure of opiate dependents’ e...

The mental and physical capabilities of drivers in traffic are often seriously challenged these days. Not only do they need to concentrate on driving, predict connections between various phenomena, take appropriate judgements in current situations and foresee the sequence of measures to be taken, but they are also expected to be emotionally stable, etc. The problem with drugs in traffic is ofte...