Methadone heals, but methadone kills. Methadone is a life-saving treatment, but methadone is also a life-threatening poison. The challenge is how to confer the benefit without incurring the harm. And that is what this book is all about. Methadone is by far the most widely prescribed drug in the treatment of heroin addiction, and yet, all too often, we are clumsy in our use of this powerful drug. So how much of the observed benefit is to do with methadone itself? Does dose matter? How important is the psychosocial component of care? How can problems of poor compliance be addressed? Is supervised consumption feasible, and, if so, is it justifiable and beneficial? And what is injectable methadone all about? When is it ever prescribed, and for whom, and how? And what about the dangers? Methadone itself can be the actual drug of overdose. How successful have efforts been made to re-structure methadone treatment to prevent overdose deaths? And how can the problems of diversion to the illicit market be kept to a minimum? This volume, comprising chapters from clinicians, researchers and policymakers, is a guide to increasing the relevance and effectiveness of methadone treatment.
- ISBN10 0312267916
- ISBN13 9780312267919
- Publish Date 3 September 2000 (first published 6 May 1999)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 August 2012
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Picador USA
- Edition Picador USA ed.
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 224
- Language English