Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T04:01:38.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Clinical Effectiveness of Electrostimulation vs Oral Methadone in Managing Opiate Withdrawal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Michael Gossop ,
Brendan Bradley ,
Philip Connell  and
John Strang
Michael Gossop
Affiliation:
Drug Dependence Clinical Research and Treatment Unit, The Bethlem Royal and The Maudsley Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent
Brendan Bradley
Affiliation:
Drug Dependence Clinical Research and Treatment Unit, The Bethlem Royal and The Maudsley Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent
Philip Connell
Affiliation:
Drug Dependence Clinical Research and Treatment Unit, The Bethlem Royal and The Maudsley Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent
John Strang
Affiliation:
Regional Drug Dependence Unit, Prestwich Hospital, Manchester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Summary A group of 24 opiate addicts admitted to an in-patient drug dependence unit received either electrostimulation or graduated oral methadone withdrawal. Addicts treated with electrostimulation showed high levels of withdrawal symptoms during the first week of treatment: these reached a peak on Day 3. In this respect electrostimulation was markedly inferior to methadone withdrawal treatment. However, although progressive methadone withdrawal quickly reduced symptoms to a moderate or low level, there was no reduction in symptomatology as late as one month after admission (i.e. after ten days without methadone). The implications of these findings are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 144 , Issue 2 , February 1984 , pp. 203 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BBC (1981) Open Secret. Transcript of a programme broadcast on BBC1 television on 11.2.81.Google Scholar
Connell, P. H. (1976) Drugs and drug addiction. Annates Nestlé 36, 1–22.Google Scholar
Gomez, E. & Mikhail, A. R. (1978) Treatment of methadone withdrawal with cerebral electrotherapy (electrosleep). British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 111–13.Google Scholar
Goodman, L. S. & Gilman, A. (1968) The Pharmaceutical Basis of Therapeutics. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gossop, M. R. (1978) Drug dependence: a study of the relationship between motivational, cognitive, social and historical factors, and treatment variables. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166, 44–50.Google Scholar
Isbell, H. & Vogel, V. H. (1948) The addiction liability of methadone and its use in the treatment of the morphine abstinence syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 105, 909–14.Google Scholar
Kleber, H. D. (1981) Detoxification from narcotics. In Substance Abuse (eds. Lowinson, J. and Ruiz, P.). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Man, P. L. & Chuang, M. Y. (1980) Acupuncture in methadone withdrawal. International Journal of the Addictions, 15, 921–6.Google Scholar
McCafferty, L. & Gossop, M. R. (1981) Changes in the dose level of opiates used by addicts admitted for withdrawal between 1969–1979. British Journal of Addiction, 76, 91–5.Google Scholar
Patterson, M. A. (1976) Effects of neuro-electric therapy (NET) in drug addiction. United Nations Bulletin on Narcotics, 28, 55–62.Google Scholar
Pharmakon Clinics (1980) The Pharmacon Patterson Treatment for Addiction. Pharmacon Clinics Ltd. Google Scholar
Sytinsky, I. A. & Galebskaya, L. V. (1981) Physio-biochemical bases of drug dependence treatment by electro-acupuncture. American Journal of Acupuncture, 9, 9–32.Google Scholar
Vogel, V. H., Isbell, H. & Chapman, K. W. (1948) Present status of narcotic addiction. Journal of the American Medical Association, 138, 1019–26.Google Scholar
Wen, H. L. & Cheung, S. Y. C. (1973) Treatment of drug addiction by acupuncture and electrical stimulation. American Journal of Acupuncture, 1, 71–5.Google Scholar
Whitehead, P. C. (1978) Acupuncture in the treatment of addiction: a review and analysis. International Journal of the Addictions, 13, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wikler, A. (1980) Opioid Dependence. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilmarth, S. S. & Goldstein, A. (1974) Therapeutic Effectiveness of Methadone Maintenance in the USA. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.