Supervising Methadone Saves Lives, U.K. Study Finds

Supervising the distribution of doses of methadone to recovering heroin abusers cut the rate of overdose deaths in Scotland and England by a factor of four, Medical News Today reported Sept. 22.

Using public mortality data from Scotland and England, a research team from the National Addiction Centre in Britain analyzed cases between 1993 and 2008 where methadone was the sole cause of death and where it was one of several drugs involved. 

According to the study, methadone was routinely prescribed and dispensed without supervision in Scotland and England during the 1990s, and it was “implicated in as many drug related deaths in the UK as was heroin.” At different points in that decade, both countries began to supervise the distribution of methadone on a daily basis to prevent patients from stockpiling doses or passing them on to others.

The researchers found that deaths related to methadone dropped significantly in both countries during the 16-year study period, even though the use of heroin and methadone increased. They also found that the drops in death rates correlated directly with the introduction of the new dosing policies. 

“We've been able to identify, for the first time, dramatically reduced mortality from deaths involving methadone, despite the recognized high risk of early death in this population,” said Professor John Strang of the National Addiction Centre. The Center is jointly run by the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

The study, “Impact of supervision of methadone consumption on deaths related to methadone overdose (1993-2008): analyses using OD4 index in England and Scotland,” was published online Sept. 16, 2010, in the British Medical Journal.