Expansion of opiate agonist treatment: an historical perspective.
Untreated opiate addiction remains a major health care crisis in New York and in most other urban centers in America. Optimism for closing the gap between need and demand for treatment and its availability has greeted the recent approval of a new opiate medication for addiction, buprenorphine--which unlike methadone may be prescribed by independent, office-based practitioners. The likelihood of buprenorphine fulfilling its potential is assessed in the light of the massive expansion of methadone treatment more than 30 years earlier. It is concluded that the key, indispensable ingredient of success will be true commitment on the part of Government to provide care to all those who need it.
Newman
Robert G
RG
The Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 555 West 57th Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10019, USA. rnewman@icaat.org