Illicit Opioid Use and its Key Characteristics: A Select Overview and Evidence from a Canadian Multisite Cohort of Illicit Opioid Users

Dear Editor: I found the articles on opioid treatment in the September 2006 edition of your journal informative and interesting. I was particularly interested in the paper by Fischer, Rehm, and Firestone. The 2 comments that struck me the most were, first, that methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) offered few, if any, benefits for nonopioid use and, second, that buprenorphine maintenance had little additional value when compared with MMT.

[1]  Adegboyega Oyemade.  Re: Illicit Opioid Use and its Key Characteristics: A Select Overview and Evidence from a Canadian Multisite Cohort of Illicit Opioid Users , 2007, Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie.

[2]  J. Rehm,et al.  Illicit Opioid Use and its Key Characteristics: A Select Overview and Evidence from a Canadian Multisite Cohort of Illicit Opioid Users (OPICAN) , 2006, Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie.

[3]  W. van den Brink,et al.  Evidence-Based Treatment of Opioid-Dependent Patients , 2006, Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie.

[4]  J. Deeks,et al.  A critical appraisal of the Australian comparative trial of methadone and buprenorphine maintenance. , 2006, Drug and alcohol review.

[5]  G. Bigelow,et al.  An injection depot formulation of buprenorphine: extended bio-delivery and effects. , 2006, Addiction.

[6]  Laura Amato,et al.  An overview of systematic reviews of the effectiveness of opiate maintenance therapies: available evidence to inform clinical practice and research. , 2005, Journal of substance abuse treatment.

[7]  J. Rehm,et al.  Eyes Wide Shut? – A Conceptual and Empirical Critique of Methadone Maintenance Treatment , 2004, European Addiction Research.

[8]  G. Bigelow,et al.  Open-label trial of an injection depot formulation of buprenorphine in opioid detoxification. , 2004, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[9]  K. Preston,et al.  Randomized Trial of Buprenorphine for Treatment of Concurrent Opiate and Cocaine Dependence , 2004, Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.

[10]  D. Vlahov,et al.  CANADIAN ILLICIT OPIATE USERS’ VIEWS ON METHADONE AND OTHER OPIATE PRESCRIPTION TREATMENT: AN EXPLORATORY QUALITATIVE STUDY , 2002, Substance use & misuse.

[11]  G. Fischer,et al.  [Cocaine abuse in maintenance therapy with methadone in narcotic dependent patients]. , 2001, Wiener klinische Wochenschrift.

[12]  D. Bloch,et al.  A meta-analysis comparing buprenorphine to methadone for treatment of opiate dependence. , 2001, Addiction.

[13]  M. Farrell,et al.  Use of non‐prescribed methadone and other illicit drugs during methadone maintenance treatment , 2000 .

[14]  S. E. Wugalter,et al.  Patterns and predictors of cocaine and crack use by clients in standard and enhanced methadone maintenance treatment. , 1997, The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse.