Detox Patients More Likely to Die

LONDON (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study shows opiate addicts are more likely than other addicts to die within a year of successfully completing a detoxification program. Opiates include opium, heroin, morphine, and codeine. Heroin is the most abused and the most rapidly acting of the opiates.

Researchers at the National Addiction Center in London tested 137 opiate users who were receiving detoxification treatment for their addiction. Five of the participants died within 12 months of completing the treatment program. Three of the five died from a drug overdose within the first four months after treatment ended. The other two deaths were unrelated.

The patients were grouped into three categories in order to test whether loss of tolerance increased the risk of an overdose. Forty-three participants were described as “still tolerant” and failed to complete the detoxification program; 57 were considered “reduced tolerant” and left the treatment program early; and 37 were “lost tolerance” patients who completed the entire program.

The three patients who died from an overdose came from the “lost tolerance” group, meaning they had successfully completed the detoxification program. No deaths occurred in the “still tolerant” group. The two unrelated deaths came from the “lost tolerance” and the “reduced tolerance” groups.

The five patients who died stayed in the detoxification program for an average of about 25 days longer than the patients who survived. The deceased patients were all men who were more likely to be living alone, taking higher doses of methadone, and using heroin less often than the other participants.

Authors of the study say the results were unexpected. They write, “On the basis of previously published data we would have expected that in our group only one or two patients would have died within a year and only one from overdose.”