Edinburgh University researches followed hundreds of people living with addiction to heroin for nearly 30 years.  What did they learn?

Methadone treatment:

• reduced the frequency of drug use
• helped people lead more stable lives
• reduced the risk of death by 13% each year

Why am I not surprised?  Because I’ve seen this with my own eyes.  And these results are consistent with previous research.

Part of what interests me about this study is that researchers followed participants in the research study for decades.  That is very useful.

The study will be published in the British Medical Journal on July 17, 2010.  I will be very interested to read the details of what they found, and will likely comment further in a future post.