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According to a new study, a naltrexone implant reduces cravings for heroin among addicts and obstructs its affects.
According to the results, the implant that thwarts addicts from the affects of heroin has had a 63% success rate of self-restraint. But oral application of the same medicine does not work equally well, with 62% of addicts receiving a daily tablet returning to regular heroin use.
The implant provides a lengthened therapeutic period during which heroin addicts can change their lifestyle, said Gary K. Hulse, professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA).
"It gives you a window of opportunity of about six months to affect some level of change," said Hulse.
The research included 70 heroin-dependent people aged 18 years and older. They were randomised to receive, daily tablet plus a placebo implant or daily placebo tablets plus a naltrexone implant placed in the abdominal skin under local anaesthesia.
During the six-month follow-up period, only 17% participants in the implant group were categorised as returning to regular heroin use, with 63% reporting total abstinence.
The finding was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
