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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2012, 14, 3 (pages: 77 - 88)

Economic Evaluation of Opioid Substitution Treatment in Greece

Geitona M., Carayanni V., Petratos P.

Summary: We performed an economic evaluation of opioid substitution treatment (OST) in Greece using data from the Greek Organization Against Drugs (OKANA). Cost minimization analysis predicted that buprenorphine monotherapy is more costly than buprenorphine-naloxone therapy. Analyses of cost effectiveness demonstrated that buprenorphine-naloxone was the dominant therapy in terms of mortality avoidance and completion of treatment. Furthermore, compared with methadone, buprenorphine-naloxone reduced the mean cost by 49%; it raised the percentage of participants who completed their treatment ~1.5-fold and reduced the percentage of deaths ~2.5-fold. Budget impact analysis demonstrated that switching to buprenorphine-naloxone treatment would result in significant savings, cut the length of waiting lists, and allow greater access to OST in Greece.