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A 12-year follow-up of a sample of patients dependent upon heroin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Saima Niaz ,
Nadia Arshad ,
Mariam Haroon ,
Fahd A. Cheema ,
Khalid A. Mufti  and
Haroon Rashid Chaudhry
Saima Niaz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Fatima Jinnah Medical College/Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, email niazpsych@yahoo.com
Nadia Arshad
Affiliation:
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan
Mariam Haroon
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Services Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
Fahd A. Cheema
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Fatima Jinnah Medical College/Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
Khalid A. Mufti
Affiliation:
Ibadat Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan
Haroon Rashid Chaudhry
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Fatima Jinnah Medical College/Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
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Heroin addiction is a chronic, relapsing and remitting condition. Each year 2–5% of addicts discontinue drug use permanently and 1–2% die, mostly of overdose (Robins, 1993). A study of 129 opiate-addicted patients on a monthly maintenance regimen found that those with a family history of opium use had an earlier age at onset (Chaudhry et al, 1991). Long-term follow-up studies of people who misuse opiates have revealed that opioid dependence appears to run a chronic, relapsing and remitting course with a significant mortality (10–15%) over 10 years (Robson, 1992). Metrebian et al (1998) reported that long-term heroin abstinence was associated with less criminality, psychological distress and morbidity; Hser et al (2001) reported it was associated with higher employment rates.

Type
Special Papers
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 94 - 95
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2007

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