[10 years development in the treatment of opiate dependent patients in the Kaufbeuren district hospital].

Discussing drug abuse and the concept of "low-threshold" in the treatment of drug addicts, we investigated development of detoxification strategies in the Department of Psychiatry at Kaufbeuren during the last 10 years. In the following we describe 4 different phases of this development: In 1988 we admitted 34 opiate-dependent patients treated in general psychiatric units. In 1998 almost, 1,000 drug addicts were treated in specialised drug detoxification units. In the beginning we realised opiate detoxification treatment without medication. In the second phase we treated the subjects symptomatically. During the last four years we have been offering homologue opiate withdrawal with L-polamidone. Last year we extended the opiate detoxification treatment to the day hospital and outpatient setting. The comparative examination of patient moods during the so called qualified and the homologue splitted opiate withdrawal treatment shows amazing similarities regarding the oscillations, leaving out of account that the remarkable worsening after one week of drug assisted detoxification was seen one week later in the homologue splitted detoxification group.