6 Months of Treatment Successful for About Half in Cocaine and Heroin Study October 15
On average about half of those who abuse the drugs heroin and cocaine in the UK are able to kick the habit within a 6 month span of treatment according to a recent study. The results come with a warning however that the treatment will likely need constant care to be maintained and avoid relapse. These results have proven that the methods used in England are proving successful enough to have decent results and have prompted the US to consider evaluating the success rate of their own programs for comparison and review.
About 14,600 users of either drug or those who used both were studied to get these results. Heroin users were treated with methadone while crack users (who have no known substitute for treatment) were treated with psychological counseling. After the 6 month time period had passed about 42% of heroin users reported having quit and about 57% of crack users indicated they’d quit, roughly half of those who abused both drugs said that they’d either cut down their use levels or stopped entirely.
While these results (paid for by the British National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse) do indicate that there is a fairly consistent level of success for this span of treatment by no means is it considered to be all that needs to be done to maintain addiction recovery in even its most successful cases. As in the case with those who suffer diabetes and high blood pressure users of these drugs require regular monitoring and care to help maintain their health and recovery. This is due to incurable quality these particular drug abusers tend to have once addiction has set in.
Tags: cocaine, crack, drug treatment, heroine, uk