Results from North America's first heroin-assisted treatment study, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI), confirm once more that medically supervised prescription heroin is safe for addicts. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that heroin-assisted therapy an effective treatment for people with chronic addiction who have not previously benefited from such medical interventions.

The study was led by researchers from the University of British Columbia in collaboration with the Université de Montréal. Data was collected from 251 people with heroin addiction, a disease estimated to affect more than one million individuals in North America.

“Heroin-assisted therapy is a safe and effective treatment for people with chronic heroin addiction. It can attract and retain the most difficult-to-reach and the hardest-to-treat individuals who have not been well served by the existing treatment system,” says Dr Suzanne Brissette, head investigator of the Montreal chapter of the NAOMI Study and a professor at the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine.

About NAOMI
Launched in 2005, the NAOMI Study tested whether heroin-assisted therapy or methadone therapy is better for improving the health and quality of life of long-time opiate users. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a 12-15-month course of medically prescribed injection opioids (heroin or hydromorphone) or oral methadone therapies.

NAOMI enrolled 192 participants in Vancouver and 59 in Montreal in 2007. The Montreal clinic was operated in collaboration with the Centre de recherche et d'aide aux narcomanes (CRAN). The treatment phase of the study was completed in June 2008 and researchers will continue to gather and analyze data until the end of 2009.

Partners in Research:
The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as approved by Health Canada.

On the Web:
About The New England Journal of Medicine study
About the NAOMI Study
About the University of British Columbia
About the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine

Contact: Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins, Press attaché - international , Tel: 514-343-7593

Source: Université de Montréal - Le Bureau des communications et des relations publiques