Methadone prescribing checks urged
Updated on 23 July 2007
A national system to keep track of the way methadone is prescribed should be set up as a matter of urgency, experts have warned.
More than 21,000 people are receiving methadone to treat their drug addiction, according to a new report. About a third of these - almost 7,000 - have children under 16 living with them.
Ministers have published a series of reports into the role of the heroin substitute in the treatment of addicts which reveal that many services in Scotland do not know how effective they are.
Former First Minister Jack McConnell was prompted to call for reports after the death of two-year-old Derek Doran from East Lothian who drank the methadone which had been supplied for his parents.
Community safety minister Fergus Ewing said that better support services are being made available to help more methadone users get off drugs.
One report by the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse, an expert group of clinicians and academics in the field of substance misuse, found that services are "rarely evaluated objectively".
It says that a national methadone audit system should be set up as a priority and annually reported on prescribing activity, quality and outcomes. Ministers should also take steps to ensure that basic data on the issue is available.
Methadone is a long-acting synthetic painkiller that mimics the effects of heroin, but is less addictive. It is used to wean addicts off heroin but can be addictive itself, prompting recent calls for greater emphasis on rehabilitation services.
The report concludes that the success of methadone treatment improves as part of a "wraparound" package of care services, including psychosocial interventions.
The expert group said that it is appropriate for methadone to be the major element of the treatment available for opiate dependency. And the majority of respondents to a Scottish Drugs Forum consultation believe methadone has had a positive impact on the lives of people being treated with it.
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