Efficacy of Heroin-assisted Treatment In Belgium: A Randomised Controlled Trial
| Autor: | Clémence Deblire, Cécile Magoga, Jérôme De Roubaix, Etienne Quertemont, Isabelle Demaret, Marc Ansseau, Géraldine Litran, André Lemaître, Nathalie Dubois, Corinne Charlier |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Narcotics medicine.medical_specialty Health (social science) Medicine (miscellaneous) Heroin law.invention Randomized controlled trial Belgium law mental disorders medicine Opiate Substitution Treatment Humans Psychiatry Heroin addicts business.industry Heroin Dependence Diacetylmorphine Psychiatry and Mental health Treatment Outcome Heroin-assisted treatment Female business Methadone medicine.drug |
| Zdroj: | European addiction research. 21(4) |
| ISSN: | 1421-9891 |
| Popis: | Background/Aims: Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) can improve the condition of heroin addicts still using street heroin after a methadone treatment. In Belgium, a new trial compared the efficacy of a HAT to existing methadone maintenance treatment. Methods: In this randomised controlled trial, HAT was limited to 12 months. Participants were assessed every 3 months. They were responders if they showed improvement on the level of street heroin use, health or criminal involvement. Results: 74 participants were randomised in the trial. The experimental group (n = 36) counted 30% of responders more than the control group (n = 38) at each assessment point (p < 0.05), except at 12 months where the difference (11%) was no longer significant (p = 0.35). Still, after 12 months, participants in the experimental group reported significantly greater improvements (p < 0.05) than the control group on the level of street heroin use and on the level of physical and mental health. Both groups reported significantly less criminal acts after 12 months (p < 0.001), but with no significant difference between the groups. Conclusions: This trial confirms the short-term efficacy of HAT for severe heroin addicts, who already failed methadone treatment. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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