METHADONE IS KEY TO EFFECTIVE DRUG TREATMENT

Article comes from The Scotsman and the original link is

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Methadone--is-key-to.6203151.jp


Methadone is key to effective drug treatment

Published Date: 05 April 2010

AS a group of experts in the treatment of opiate-dependent people, we write to express our dismay about the continuing misrepresentation in the media of the evidence on the effectiveness of methadone treatment.

The purpose of this treatment for the distressing condition of opiate dependency is perhaps misunderstood. People with serious addictions are at great risk of death from overdose and infection.

This is nowhere more obvious than in Scotland where there has been an outbreak in illness and deaths by anthrax and where there were nearly 600 drug-related deaths last year.

Methadone can prevent death, stabilise lifestyles and improve social functioning. It is remarkable to those of us who provide this life-saving treatment what improvement is seen when people start this therapy. Treatment has to be supported by a programme of psychological and social support, at least for the first few months, and has to be continuous. Some people will need long-term and even lifelong treatment.

Compared to other essential medical therapies, methadone is not expensive. Most patients who benefit from methadone treatment can live otherwise normal lives.

The media repeatedly report a view of methadone treatment that is simply contrary to the extensively documented worldwide clinical and research experience of many decades.

Reliable and persistent research shows that methadone treatment substantially reduces deaths, crime, HIV infection and drug use while also assisting social functioning such as improved education, training, parenting and employment. Every £1 spent on methadone treatment saves between £4 and £7. Methadone treatment has been endorsed by three UN agencies: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS.

WHO has also included methadone treatment in its "essential medicines" list and 70 countries in the world now provide methadone or buprenorphine treatment to an estimated one million patients.

No treatment in medicine works every time with every patient, but methadone treatment has helped more people in the world overcome their problems with heroin than any other. This treatment should be readily available to every person using heroin that seeks help, accepts this option and meets national criteria.

If policymakers were to heed the critics' advice to close down methadone treatment, or impose an arbitrary time limit on its administration, the community can anticipate more overdose deaths, more HIV and more crime. Surely this is not what the public want and deserve.

It is essential that policy and treatment services are clear about the value and importance of methadone treatment.

Dr. Roy Robertson FRCP(Ed) FRCGP,
General Practitioner and Reader
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland

Professor Sheila M. Bird
MRC Biostatistics Unit
Robinson Way
CAMBRIDGE CB2 0SR

Dr Malcolm Bruce MB,ChB, FRCPsych, PhD
Consultant Psychiatrist in Addiction
Community Drug Problem Service
22-24 Spittal Street
Edinburgh
Scotland

Dr John Budd
GP with special interest in substance misuse.
Edinburgh Access Practice

Professor M.Patrizia Carrieri, PhD
Epidemiologist
National Institute for Health and Medical Research
UMR 912
Marseilles
Dr. Timothy Christie, BA(hons), MA, MHSc, PhD
Regional Director, Ethics Services, Horizon Health Network
Adjunct Professor, Department of Bioethics, Dalhousie University
Lecturer, Department of Languages and Humanities, University of New Brunswick
Saint John Regional Hospital
Saint John, New Brunswick

Dr Lucinda Cockayne
Lead Clinician, NHS Fife Addiction Services
Consultant Psychiatrist
Honorary Senior Lecturer St Andrews University
Ward 11, Cameron Hospital
Windygates
Fife
KY8 5RR

Andrej Kastelic
CENTER FOR TREATMENT OF DRUG ADDICTION SLOVENIA
University Psychiatric Hospital
Zaloska 29, 1000 Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

Nuno Portugal Neto Capaz
Sociologist, Vice President of the Comissão para a Dissuasão da Toxicodependência de Lisboa
Lisboa, Portugal

Univ.Prof. Dr. Gabriele Fischer
Medizinische Universität Wien
Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Währingergürtel 18-20
1090 Wien, Austria

Douglas Gourlay MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASAM
Medical Consultant,
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,
Toronto, Ontario CANADA

Dr Shay Griffin
Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry
Monklands Hospital
Airdrie
Lanarkshire ML6 0JS

Marc Reisinger, Psychiatrist
European Opiate Addiction Treatment Association
Brussels,
Belgium

Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman
FRACP
Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases
University of Malaya
Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia

Shui Shan Lee, MD, FRCP, FRCPA, FFPH
Professor of Infectious Disease
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
205 Postgraduate Education Centre
Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin
Hong Kong

Dr. Garrett McGovern
GP Specialising in Substance Abuse,
HSE Addiction Services,
Baggot Street Clinic,
19 Haddington Road,
Dublin 4, Eire

Dr John Macleod
Reader in Clinical Epidemiology and Primary Care
Department of Social Medicine
University of Bristol
Canynge Hall
39 Whatley Road
Bristol
BS8 2PS

Thomas Kerr, PhD
Director, Urban Health Research Initiative
British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Medicine
University of British Columbia
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar
St. Paul's Hospital
608-1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada, V6Z 1Y6

Bill Nelles
Addiction Counsellor
Beach Rd Medical Centre
Qualicum Beach BC
Canada

Dr. Robert Newman, MD, MPH, Director Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center
555 W. 57th St.
NY NY 10019, USA

Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch
Director, Global Drug Policy Program, OSI

Dr. Marta Torrens
Director of Addiction Department
Institute of Psychiatry and Addiction
Parc de Salut Mar
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Barcelona
Spain
Prof. Ernest Drucker PhD
Professor Emeritus of Family and Social Medicine
Montefiore Medical Center/
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
and
Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology
Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health, USA
Matt Hickman
Reader in Public Health and Epidemiology
Department of Social Medicine
University of Bristol
Canynge Hall
39 Whatley Road
Bristol, UK

Dr Jane Jay,
Consultant Physician,
Past Chair,
National Forum Drug Related Deaths,
Scotland

Herman Joseph, Ph.D., Consultant,
NYC Harm Reduction Coalition, National Alliance of Methadone Advocates Recovery (NAMAR) and National Development Research Institute, Inc. (NDRI), USA

Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch
Director, Global Drug Policy Program Open Society Institute,
Warsaw,
Poland

Mark W. Parrino, M.P.A.
President
American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD)
225 Varick Street, Suite 402
New York, NY 10014


Hans-Guenter Meyer-Thompson
Professor John Strang
Addictions Department
National Addiction Centre
Addiction Sciences Building
4 Windsor Walk
Denmark Hill
London, UK

Dr Chris Ford
Clinical Director SMMGP & GP Principal
Lonsdale Medical Centre
24 Lonsdale Road
London, UK

Prof. Wayne Hall,
NHMRC Australia
Fellow UQ Centre for Clinical Research and School of Population Health,
The University of Queensland,
Herston Qld 4029,
Australia

Dr Kennedy Roberts OBE,
Medical Practitioner,
Edinburgh Drug Addiction Study
Muirhouse Medical Group,
Edinburgh, Scotland

Marc Shinderman, MD
Psychiatry/Addiction Medicine
Chicago IL
US

Ian Stolerman
Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Pharmacology
Institute of Psychiatry P048
King's College London
De Crespigny Park
London SE5 8AF, UK

Em. Prof. Ambros Uchtenhagen, MD, PhD
President, Research Foundation for Public Health and Addiction, affiliated with Zurich University, Switzerland

Dr. Albrecht Ulmer,
Specialist in HIV and Addiction Medicine
Cofounder of the German Society for Addiction Medicine Stuttgart,
Germany

Dr Richard Watson
Clinical Lead Substance Misuse
Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland)

Prof. dr. Wim van den Brink, MD PhD
Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research (AIAR)
Academic Psychiatric Centre AMC-UvA
room nr PA 1.188
PO box 22660
1100 DD Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Dr. Alex Wodak FRACP, FAChAM, FAFPHM, MB BS,
Director, Alcohol and Drug Service,
St. Vincent's Hospital,
Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010,
Australia

Kerry Wolf,
Board of Directors,
National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery,
Austin, Texas
USA

Evan Wood, M.D., Ph.D.
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS &
Associate Professor, Division of AIDS
Department of Medicine, UBC

Stephan Walcher, MD,
Anesthesiologist, Internist, GP, Pain and Addiction Specialist
CONCEPT, Outpatient Addiction Clinics in Munich
Germany