Medical Heroin Helps Treatment-Resista...(ed as a treatment of last resort. Th...),Health

The Canadian study sought to examine a North American population, though the authors acknowledged that the study could not have been conducted in the United States because of "financial and logistical barriers."

The study involved 251 people, all older than 25, who had been using opioids for at least five years and were currently injecting opioids daily. By random assignment, oral methadone was given to 111 participants, 115 were given medical heroin injections and 25 were given injections of hydromorphone (Dilaudid), a narcotic medication that has similar effects to medical heroin.

Almost 88 percent of those in the medical heroin group stayed in the study, compared with 54 percent of the methadone group. The reduction in the rate of illicit drug use or other illegal activities was 67 percent in the medical heroin group and 48 percent in the methadone group.

Ten people overdosed, none fatally, during the study period, and six people had seizures. Because of those risks, the authors wrote, medical heroin should only be used in a setting where prompt medical interventions are available.

On the whole, Schechter said, the approach is one worth considering.

"People need to have an open mind when it comes to the treatment of addiction," he said. "This treatment is good for the people addicted to heroin and very good for the community. It saves money and gets rid of black market criminal activity."

Though medical heroin is not likely to be approved for addiction treatment in the United States, Schechter said, the study did find that hydromorphone had similar advantages and is already approved for use in the United States. However, the study did not include enough people in the hydromorphone group, he said, so more research is needed.

An addiction medicine specialist, Dr. Joshua D. Lee, a professor of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center
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