[Ambulatory medical treatment of drug dependent patients]

The treatment and counseling of drug addicts increasingly comes under the responsibility of family physicians. Since the onset of the AIDS epidemic this applies in particular to the methadone treatment of chronically ill heroin addicts. Medical education concerning the treatment of addiction is insufficient. Unprofessional dealing with drug addicts may easily result in serious obstruction of the relation between physician and patient. Thus it endangers the success of treatment. Basic guidelines of interaction, possibilities of abstinence therapy as well as harm reducing strategies are presented.