ADDICT TREATMENT

Sir, - The alarmist headline on a recent report, "Addicts swamp GP
surgeries", should be taken with a grain of salt...just like "one inner-city
practice has had a 100-fold increase in the number of people requiring
treatment in just five years". There may have been one single consultation
for addiction in 1992 and 100 in 1997. Big deal!

Medical services have to treat all these drug addicts whether they are on
formal treatment (usually methadone) or not. The difference is that we are
treating the complications of street drug use on the one hand (overdose,
infections, trauma, etc) or prescribing and counselling on the other.

The medical literature gives clear guidance on how to treat heroin addicts.
Abstinence orientated treatment suit some addicts and should be encouraged
where possible. As used widely elsewhere in Scotland, supervised methadone
dosing is safe and effective for opioid dependency. This can be implemented
by GPs and community pharmacies. It can actually save up to seven times its
cost and reduces mortality by 75 per cent. This translates to a massive
saving of young lives.

"The burden facing the health services in Aberdeen" will be far greater if
correct treatment is not implemented now. The drug problem needs a
scientific approach and not sensational alarmism.

(Dr) Andrew Byrne Redfern Street, Redfern New South Wales, Australia
ajbyrne@ozemail.com.au

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett