Outcomes of 575 British opiate addicts entering treatment between 1968 and 1975

Five hundred and seventy-five opiate addicts (455 male, 120 female) who were treated at two clinics in London between 1968 and 1975 had their current situation reviewed in October 1975. Fifty-two per cent were still in treatment (258 at the clinics, 42 elsewhere), 28 per cent were not in treatment and not known to be using opiates, 11 per cent had died, 6 per cent were in custody and 3 per cent had left the country. Sixty-one per cent of the patients in treatment had remained so continuously. Twenty-eight per cent had also had in-patient hospital treatment. Some patients were very unstable and those treated as in-patients in hospital two or more times for drug abuse had an average of nine hospitalizations. Forty-six per cent of patients in clinic treatment said they were working regularly at the end of the study (23 per cent at entry). Some 7-8 per cent of patients left treatment each year and the death rate remained between 2 and 3 per cent each year. The prescribing of heroin for addicts was gradually superseded by the prescribing of injectable methadone. The authors concluded that a methadone maintenance programme probably had some value in the treatment of opiate dependence.