Pubdate: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 Source: West Australian (Australia) Copyright: 2001 West Australian Newspapers Limited Contact: +61 8 94823830 Website: http://www.thewest.com.au Author: Liz Tickner Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) EXPERTS BACK DRUG STUDY ADDICTION experts, substance users and a welfare group have welcomed the release of a medical study which has raised concerns about the controversial anti-heroin treatment naltrexone. The West Australian reported yesterday that a two-year study of 3617 Perth heroin addicts by psychiatrist James Fellows-Smith and GP James Edwards found that untreated addicts were less likely to die than those who dropped out of the naltrexone program. Perth doctor George O'Neil runs a naltrexone clinic in Subiaco. The study - which Dr Fellows-Smith has submitted for publication in a prominent medical journal but has made public beforehand in an effort to stop more preventable deaths - found that addicts on the streets had a one in 100 chance of dying. Addicts prescribed naltrexone had a one in 61 chance of dying and those prescribed methadone had a mortality rate of one in 458. James Bell, director of the Langton Centre at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, warned against people being seduced by the short-term success that naltrexone offered. Dr Bell said naltrexone patients faced real danger if they dropped off the program and started using heroin again because of their reduced tolerance to opiates. Patients who took naltrexone orally had a low retention rate on the program and naltrexone implants were still at the experimental stage, he said. On the other hand, most patients were able to function normally in the community when they took methadone to control their addiction. WA Substance Users Association manager Tamara Speed said her agency had had concerns about naltrexone for a number of years and had produced 2000 flyers alerting drug users to the risks of over-dosing after coming off naltrexone. Ms Speed claimed that naltrexone patients were not being adequately told of the risks. "Naltrexone has got a place along with other treatments and I don't want it to disappear but it needs to be better prescribed," she said. Mission Australia regional manager Anne Russell-Brown said the study had brought back some reality to the debate about drug treatment and underscored the need for a broad approach to combat substance abuse, particularly among young users. Ms Russell-Brown said a proposed drug summit needed to move beyond the current debate about naltrexone and safe injecting rooms and focus on the issue of prevention and family support. "Government and community decision-makers need to understand that there is no one-stop solution to the issue of substance abuse," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: GD