Alcoholism Among Methadone Patients: A Specific Treatment Method
IRA LIEBSON M.D.1,
GEORGE BIGELOW PH.D.2, , and
RONALD FLAMER 3
1 Assistant Chief of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry of Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, Md. 21224 and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
2 Medical Research Associate, Department of Psychiatry of Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, Md. 21224 and Assistant Professor of Behavioral Biology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
3 Medical Research Assistant, Department of Psychiatry of Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, Md. 21224
Alcoholism is a frequent complication of methadone treatment. In this study, the reinforcing properties of methadone were employed therapeutically to maintain patients on disulfiram. In the experimental condition, alcoholic methadone patients were given methadone only if they also ingested disulfiram. In the control situation, patients with the same addictions were given disulfiram but were not required to ingest it as a condition of receiving methadone. The results indicated that alcoholism was effectively arrested only while patients were treated under the experimental condition.
