DRUG SIMPLIFIES HEROIN THERAPY

An alternative drug treatment for heroin dependence that is safer and easier
to use than methadone could circumvent clinics, allowing heroin users to be
treated at home supervised by their GP.

Drug researchers believe buprenorphine could become the treatment of choice
for heroin addiction, replacing methadone, which has monopolised drug
rehabilitation.

One of the world's largest studies of the drug, conducted by the National
Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, found buprenorphine was as effective as
morphine in suppressing heroin use and in keeping patients in treatment.

The study, to be presented tomorrow at a conference of the Australian
Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs, found that buprenorphine
had several advantages over methadone. Buprenorphine is safer, with no
deaths from overdose recorded anywhere in the world; it can be taken every
two days rather than daily like methadone and withdrawing from buprenorphine
is relatively easy.

By comparison, methadone is considered more addictive than heroin making
withdrawing from methadone difficult.

NDARC researcher Richard Mattick said buprenorphine was an excellent rival
for methadone and the place it assumed in treatment programs would depend on
the price charged by the drug company.

"It probably could replace methadone as the treatment of choice," he said.

Buprenorphine is already the main treatment in France only a few years after
drug treatment programs were initiated, with more than 50,000 people using
buprenorphine compared with only 2000 taking methadone.

In France, buprenorphine is supplied by prescription through pharmacies.
Patients are able to take the drug home, rather than drink it on the spot as
required with methadone.

Dr Mattick envisaged a similar system for stabilised patients in Australia,
enabling people to have their drug rehabilitation monitored by their GP
rather than attending methadone clinics.

Used to relieve pain in hospitals for the past 20 years, buprenorphine was
developed in England in the 1970s as a potent pain relieving drug without
the addictive qualities of morphine.

While it has some of the effect of opiates, buprenorphine also acts as a
block to opiates, like the widely publicised naltrexone.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst