title: Heroin addiction: what can the GP do?
abstract: This article is based on nine months as a casualty coordinator, and eighteen months of weekly GP sessions at a drug dependency unit--a limited experience which justifies no claim to expertise. However, I believe my former ignorance to be fairly typical, so that my comments may have value for GPs. Although the comments focus on heroin (this being by far the most common narcotic of addiction), I am aware that heroin fits into a long continuum of substance dependencies, perhaps offers an entry into that continuum for the clinician who seeks understanding of all dependencies. My object being to describe the landscape through the eyes of a GP taking his first real look, I shall concern myself with concepts and impressions rather than statistics and clinical details.
mesh_terms: D005194:Family Practice; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations
chemical_list: D008691:Methadone