This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • CME Course for This Article  • Submit Response to Patient's Crossroads  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Readers Responses  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Pain  • Substance Abuse/ Alcoholism  • Drug Therapy, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Review of Treatment of Heroin Addiction

Charles P. O’Brien, MD, PhD, Discussant

JAMA. 2008;300(3):314-321.

Heroin addiction is a complicated medical and psychiatric issue, with well-established as well as newer modes of treatment. The case of Ms W, a 50-year-old woman with a long history of opiate addiction who has been treated successfully with methadone for 9 years and who now would like to consider newer alternatives, illustrates the complex issues of heroin addiction. The treatment of heroin addiction as a chronic disease is reviewed, including social, medical, and cultural issues and pharmacologic treatment with methadone and the more experimental medication options of buprenorphine and naltrexone.

Author Affiliations: Dr O’Brien is Kenneth E. Appel Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Director for Research, VA Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, and Vice Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

RAPID RESPONSES TO THIS ARTICLE

Stigma of Methadone Maintenance as a Precipitator of Relapse to Active Heroin Use
Douglas C. Meyer
JAMA Online, 15 Jul 2008.
TEXT