Ten Years of Abstinence in Former Opiate Addicts: Medication-Free Non-Patients Compared to Methadone Maintenance Patients

Abstract

Fifty-five former opioid addicts who have been methadone maintained patients for 10 or more years and whose urine has tested negative for drugs for 2 or more years were compared to 99 former opioid addicts who have been medication-free for 10 or more years. Groups were comparable in age and education, but the medication-free subjects were younger when having started opioids with more severe addiction scores. Methadone maintained patients presented with a higher proportion of psychiatric comorbidity and chronic pain. Their scores of perceived sleep quality and cognitive state were poorer than the medication-free individuals. Possible explanations of the differences are discussed in this article.

KEYWORDS:

• Prolonged abstinence
• methadone maintenance treatment
• sleep
• cognitive
• chronic pain

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Esther Eshkol at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center for the editing of the English language.

FUNDING

This study was funded by the Adelson Family Foundation.