Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:234-236
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
A clinical, controlled study of l-alpha-acetylmethadol in the treatment of narcotic addiction
M Marcovici, CP O'Brien, AT McLellan and J Kacian
The authors compared l-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM) with methadone for
clinical effectiveness in the treatment of narcotic addiction. LAAM was as
effective as methadone on all outcome measures, including length of stay in
treatment. Two clinicopharmacologic properties of LAAM caused some patients
to ask for a switch to methadone. The authors describe these phenomena and
discuss their impact on the clinical effectiveness of LAAM.
