A comparison of residential heroin detoxification patients and methadone maintenance patients

Interviews were conducted with 101 heroin dependent persons entering a residential drug-free detoxification unit in 1989. These self-report data were compared with those previously collected in 1985-6 from 457 methadone maintenance patients. The detoxification patients injected less frequently, used less heroin, had been physically dependent for a shorter period and were more likely to be single, unemployed and to have been charged with a criminal offence in the last 12 months. It is suggested that these findings may indicate that addicts who use more heroin are less likely to seek drug-free detoxification. The wider implication of the finding is that future surveys of injecting drug users should assume that there are significant differences between heroin users entering different modalities of treatment.