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Video here: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2014/s4083602.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/09/2014
Reporter: John Stewart
An eleven year study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has found that long term treatment is the key to turning heroin addicts' lives around
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Short-term treatments for heroin users like rapid detox often fail and lead to relapse. That's one of the key findings from the longest study of heroin users ever undertaken in Australia. The research released tonight finds that long-term treatment is the key to turning addicts' lives around. The 11-year study was conducted by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. With this exclusive report, here's John Stewart.
JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: Each year about 65,000 Australians seek treatment for heroin addiction. Now a landmark study has interviewed 615 addicts to determine what treatments are working. And the report's authors say there was one clear finding.
SHANE DARKE, NATIONAL DRUG & ALCOHOL RESEARCH CENTRE: What we know works is long-term, stable treatment. Now, by that I'm thinking of either maintenance therapies - that's where people are given substitutes like methadone of buprenorphine - or residential rehabilitation, drug-free residential rehabilitation.
MAREE TESSON, NATIONAL DRUG & ALCOHOL RESEARCH CENTRE: We don't have a quick fix or a magic bullet to heroin dependence. It's a problem that's going to last for quite a long period of time - 10 years - a very long period of time.
JOHN STEWART: The report suggests that short-term treatments like rapid detox centres, which offer Naltrexone implants, are less likely to work.
SHANE DARKE: I think it's important to understand that short-term treatments like just detoxifying somebody, is not - is actually probably increasing the risk of death. In fact we know for a fact it increases their risk of death.
JOHN STEWART: After following drug users for 11 years, the study found that: 10 per cent of heroin users had died, 25 per cent were still using heroin and 50 per cent were still in treatment programs.
One of the big surprises of the study was a dramatic decrease in the reliance on crime as a source of income.
At the start of the study in 2001: 24 per cent of heroin users relied on crime as their main income. By 2012, at the end of the study, only two per cent were committing crimes to buy drugs.
Researchers say that long-term treatment programs had radically reduced crime among the group.
GARTH POPPLE, DIRECTOR, WE HELP OURSELVES: Treatment does work, and even though this study that you're been looking at still cites people using heroin after 11 years, everybody has been seeking treatment. Over 50 per cent of people have been seeking treatment. Guess what? We've got a much more reduction than 50 per cent reduction in crime. We're still way so far in front.
JOHN STEWART: The other key finding was that depression remains a barrier to successful treatment, with one in four users suffering major depression.
MAREE TESSON: For the first time, 10 years ago we actually interviewed and asked people about the depression that they'd experienced. And overriding over 10 years, depression was the strongest influence on whether they did well or didn't do well.
JOHN STEWART: The report also dispels the myth that heroin users grow out of the drug as they get older.
SHANE DARKE: We've got people dying of overdoses from heroin in their 60's now. We all thought that - it was believed that everyone matured out. Heroin users would mature out, it was called, when they hit about 30. It's simply not the case. And now we've had heroin in Australia since the '60's, since the Vietnam War. We've had enough time to actually see what happens in the long term.
JOHN STEWART: The researchers say that casual heroin users are a myth.
SHANE DARKE: They're like the Bunyip - they're frequently reported but rarely seen. They don't turn up amongst the deaths, they don't turn up in treatment. There's no real evidence - for every one casual user, I could show you 500 heavily dependent users.
JOHN STEWART: The report offers hope to the families of addicts and says even if it takes more than a decade, a genuine road to recovery is possible.
John Stewart, Lateline.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/09/2014
Reporter: John Stewart
An eleven year study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has found that long term treatment is the key to turning heroin addicts' lives around
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Short-term treatments for heroin users like rapid detox often fail and lead to relapse. That's one of the key findings from the longest study of heroin users ever undertaken in Australia. The research released tonight finds that long-term treatment is the key to turning addicts' lives around. The 11-year study was conducted by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. With this exclusive report, here's John Stewart.
JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: Each year about 65,000 Australians seek treatment for heroin addiction. Now a landmark study has interviewed 615 addicts to determine what treatments are working. And the report's authors say there was one clear finding.
SHANE DARKE, NATIONAL DRUG & ALCOHOL RESEARCH CENTRE: What we know works is long-term, stable treatment. Now, by that I'm thinking of either maintenance therapies - that's where people are given substitutes like methadone of buprenorphine - or residential rehabilitation, drug-free residential rehabilitation.
MAREE TESSON, NATIONAL DRUG & ALCOHOL RESEARCH CENTRE: We don't have a quick fix or a magic bullet to heroin dependence. It's a problem that's going to last for quite a long period of time - 10 years - a very long period of time.
JOHN STEWART: The report suggests that short-term treatments like rapid detox centres, which offer Naltrexone implants, are less likely to work.
SHANE DARKE: I think it's important to understand that short-term treatments like just detoxifying somebody, is not - is actually probably increasing the risk of death. In fact we know for a fact it increases their risk of death.
JOHN STEWART: After following drug users for 11 years, the study found that: 10 per cent of heroin users had died, 25 per cent were still using heroin and 50 per cent were still in treatment programs.
One of the big surprises of the study was a dramatic decrease in the reliance on crime as a source of income.
At the start of the study in 2001: 24 per cent of heroin users relied on crime as their main income. By 2012, at the end of the study, only two per cent were committing crimes to buy drugs.
Researchers say that long-term treatment programs had radically reduced crime among the group.
GARTH POPPLE, DIRECTOR, WE HELP OURSELVES: Treatment does work, and even though this study that you're been looking at still cites people using heroin after 11 years, everybody has been seeking treatment. Over 50 per cent of people have been seeking treatment. Guess what? We've got a much more reduction than 50 per cent reduction in crime. We're still way so far in front.
JOHN STEWART: The other key finding was that depression remains a barrier to successful treatment, with one in four users suffering major depression.
MAREE TESSON: For the first time, 10 years ago we actually interviewed and asked people about the depression that they'd experienced. And overriding over 10 years, depression was the strongest influence on whether they did well or didn't do well.
JOHN STEWART: The report also dispels the myth that heroin users grow out of the drug as they get older.
SHANE DARKE: We've got people dying of overdoses from heroin in their 60's now. We all thought that - it was believed that everyone matured out. Heroin users would mature out, it was called, when they hit about 30. It's simply not the case. And now we've had heroin in Australia since the '60's, since the Vietnam War. We've had enough time to actually see what happens in the long term.
JOHN STEWART: The researchers say that casual heroin users are a myth.
SHANE DARKE: They're like the Bunyip - they're frequently reported but rarely seen. They don't turn up amongst the deaths, they don't turn up in treatment. There's no real evidence - for every one casual user, I could show you 500 heavily dependent users.
JOHN STEWART: The report offers hope to the families of addicts and says even if it takes more than a decade, a genuine road to recovery is possible.
John Stewart, Lateline.
