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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2000, 02, 1 (pages: 39 - 46)

Methadone dose and retention in treatment of heroin addicts with Bipolar I Disorder comorbidity. Preliminary Results

Maremmani I., Canoniero S., Pacini M.

Summary: We studied 71 opioid-dependent subjects, 19 with additional DSM-IV diagnosis of Bipolar I disorder and 52 with no psychiatric comorbidity. There were significant differences between these two groups regarding the methadone dose required for clinical stabilization, but not in the rate of retention in treatment. Patients with bipolar I psychiatric comorbidity required an average stabilization dose of 146±80 of methadone, compared with 99±49 mg/die for patients whose only Axis I diagnosis was Opioid Dependence. In the 990-day period considered there were no significant differences between the two groups of patients in terms of retention on treatment; even so, bipolar I heroin addicts patients tend to be less compliant to treatment