CONCLUSIONS
"1. Heroin-assisted therapy proved to be a safe and highly effective treatment for people with chronic, treatment-refractory heroin addiction. Marked improvements were observed including decreased use of illicit “street” heroin, decreased criminal activity, decreased money spent on drugs, and improved physical and psychological health.
"2. The NAOMI trial attracted the most chronic and marginalized heroin users who were outside the treatment system and continued to use heroin despite numerous previous treatment attempts. Both heroin-assisted therapy and optimized methadone maintenance treatment achieved high retention rates and remarkable response rates in this difficult-to-treat group.
"3. Contrary to pre-existing concerns, the treatment clinics appeared to have no negative impacts on the surrounding neighbourhoods.
"4. Participants on hydromorphone did not distinguish this drug from heroin. Moreover, hydromorphone appeared to be equally effective as heroin although the study was not designed to test this conclusively. If this were proven to be true, hydromorphone-assisted therapy could offer legal, political and logistical advantages over heroin and could be made more widely available."
Reaching the Hardest to Reach–Treating the Hardest-to-Treat. The NAOMI Study Team. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Institutes of Health, October 17, 2008.
