DRUG TO BEAT HEROIN

A DRUG widely used in WA to help heroin addicts kick the habit has been
found to be just as effective as methadone.

A Sydney study of 115 addicts found detoxification with heroin substitute
buprenorphine was just as successful if done by trained general
practitioners or in a specialist clinic.

More than 70 per cent of those who took part in the study completed the
detoxification process and just over half had post-withdrawal treatment.

James Bell, from Sydney Hospital, said the study showed that buprenorphine
treatment involving general practitioners and retail pharmacists to
supervise the dosing could be as safe and effective as treatment in a
specialist clinic.

"Outcomes in both the clinic setting and primary care were very similar,"
Dr Bell said. "The cost of buprenorphine detoxification in primary
(general practitioner) care was estimated to be $24 more per patient than
treatment at the clinic."

The study, reported in the Medical Journal of Australia, was conducted in
an outpatient drug treatment centre and six general practices in inner Sydney.

The six GPs who took part were experienced at treating heroin addicts but
had not previously used buprenorphine. They were given training before the
trial began.

Allan Quigley, director of clinical services for WA's government-run drug
treatment centre Next Step, said GPs had been prescribing buprenorphine in
WA since 2001 and more than 1000 people were using it - roughly the same as
the number of people using methadone.

Buprenorphine had several advantages over methadone, he said. It was
longer lasting and a more effective blocker for heroin - so users who went
back to heroin while taking buprenorphine were unlikely to get the buzz
they craved.

But Dr Quigley said he believed methadone and controversial treatment
naltrexone were still needed in the arsenal of drugs used to treat heroin
addicts. "You need a range of treatments because a drug that works for one
person won't necessarily work for another," he said.