SCOTLAND PHASES OUT METHADONE

NEW DRUG POLICY

Health authorities in Scotland are planning to phase out methadone treatment programmes for heroin addicts and offer instead alternative therapies and residential rehabilitation programmes.

The change in policy follows mounting evidence which has shown that methadone programmes, first introduced in the 1970s, have failed to reduce addiction rates or cut the number of drug-related deaths.

A recent study by the Centre for Drug Misuse at Glasgow University revealed that whereas one in three heroin users who received residential treatment was drug free after three years, only 3% of those who were placed on methadone were drug free after the same period.

The shift in policy indicates a radical change in attitude from using the heroin substitute to wean addicts off heroin - to encouraging abstinence by offering support via a range of other treatment options.

Methadone is also an addictive opiate and costs the government around £12million a year - and research suggests that five years after starting the treatment, 90% of addicts are still taking methadone.

Recent government figures show that drug-related deaths rose to a record high of 421 in 2006 and methadone was present in 97 of those recorded deaths, 25 more than in the previous year.

The new drug strategy, the first significant change in policy in almost a decade, is being unveiled in Scotland this week and is expected to include a multi-million-pound expansion in the range of alternatives to methadone to help addicts back into society.

These are expected to include psychological therapies, residential abstinence programmes, support for families and children and education and employment training - all designed to help addicts live a drug-free life.

Comments

[Zenith]

Sadly, Scotland uses this very fallacious "study" to justify their abandonment of methadone. They study assumes that success in MMT means being free of methadone--but this is no more true than success in diabetes care means being free of insulin. Opioid addiction is a chronic disease, and requires a variety of treatments for success. Some people can succeed with abstinence, and that is great. However, for the admitted 70% that do not succeed at abstinence based treatment, ongoing (not time limited) methadone treatment can save--and salvage--lives. The study gives people the impression that only 3% were free of ILLICIT drugs-but that is NOT the case. What it means is that only 3% were free of ALL drugs INCLUDING methadone. That would be like saying that AA doesn't work because you are still going to AA. People with long histories of addiction to opiates often experience permanent chemical changes in the brain, and thereafter are unable to feel normal without opiates. methadone replaces the missing endorphins and restores chemical balance to the brain--but in the group with permanent damage, this lasts only as long as the medication is taken--when you stop, the symptoms (severe depression, anxiety, exhaustion, inability to feel pleasure) return, and remain, no matter how long they wait. I am not speaking here of people who may be helped by abstinence based therapies, but of those who, though the support and counseling are helpful, may have a permanent biochemical, MEDICAL problem in the brain chemistry, requiring medical treatment, and all the group meetings and counseling and job training on earth cannot repair that. Methadone needs to be available for those that need it, and not limited to any time frame--no other medication anywhere is time limited by the govt., and there are NO studies to support limiting time in treatment--all it does is increase relapse rates and death.

[Dr C Cassidy]

Why is there no discssion about the alternative of buprenorphine in this SCottish debate. In my practice i use mostly Buuprenorphine ?. Compared to methadone it is much safer less addictive and more flexible emnabling individuals to get off it quite quickly. There are many other benefits ,less sedating and very unlikely to cause overdose. Costs and despensing costs are more but the increased flexibility of managing it will result in less cost n the longer term.