Pubdate: Wed, 22 May 2002 Source: Newsday (NY) Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 Author: Jamie Talan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) NEW DRUG TREATS HEROIN ADDICTION Philadelphia - The treatment of heroin addiction could change dramatically in the coming months because the federal government is expected to approve a drug that would be available by prescription, doctors were told yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. The drug, buprenorphine, has been used in Europe for several years to treat withdrawal symptoms. Unlike liquid methadone, buprenorphine is available in pill form, and patients are instructed to let it dissolve under the tongue. Like methadone, it works by reducing cravings for heroin, which can last for years. The euphoria it produces is far milder than that of heroin. Since the 1960s, when methadone was approved for treatment of addiction in this country, only licensed centers have been allowed to dispense it. It is estimated there are 800,000 heroin addicts in the United States and 200,000 receive methadone at more than 1,000 clinics. Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the center for substance abuse and treatment at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, said the government is expected to announce that the drug is sufficiently safe and effective to be used without the oversight that a center provides dispensing doses daily. He said it is hoped that the pill's availability will lead more addicts to enter treatment by approaching their own physicians. Heroin works by activating the brain's opiate receptors, and the result is a feeling of euphoria. Buprenorphine partly blocks the opiate receptors and provides a sufficient "high." In France, about 100 deaths have been reported among addicts who abuse buprenorphine, said Dr. Pekka Laine, a Finnish doctor who has been prescribing it for about a year. Dr. Herbert Kleber, director of the division of substance abuse at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said studies have shown that it does not cause respiratory problems, a major cause of death of people taking heroin or high doses of methadone. Physicians will be required to get at least eight hours of training before prescribing the drug, or have a specialty in addiction medicine. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex