Heroin dependence in an English town: 33-year follow-up

There has been no long-term study of people addicted to injected heroin who have been treated without the prescribing of substitute opioids.

To investigate the outcome for patients treated for injected heroin addiction 33 years after they were first seen, and 26 years after they were first followed up, in terms of sustained abstinence, continuing maintenance on methadone and deaths.

Eighty-six people with heroin addiction first seen in in 1966-1967 in a small town in the south-east of England were located and their clinical state assessed using multiple sources, including personal interviews with a proportion of the cohort.

Forty-two per cent of the cohort had been abstinent for at least 10 years; 10% were taking methadone and were classified as addicted; and 22% had died. Eight percent of the cohort could not be located.

Results proved favourable in the above three parameters compared with other long-term studies.