Trends in substitution treatment in Europe

Addiction to heroin is a dual dependence, both on the drug itseIf and on the environment surrounding drug-taking. The success rate of substitution treatment is around 50% and this encouraging figure partly accounts for the large increase in treatment over the last 15 years. The spread of HIV throughout the intravenous drug-user population and the ensuing AIDS epidemic has also been an important stimulus to the establishment of treatment programmes. Data from several western European countries indicate an increase in methadone prescribing beginning around 1990, following the large increase in AIDS during the mid 1980s. However, methadone availability is still low and only 12% of addicts in Europe me currently being treated. There appears to be an inverse relationship between the rate of increase of AIDS cases and the availability of substitution treatment in each country, indicating a need for more treatment and, possibly, more substitution agents.