[Preliminary evaluation of methadone program in Kraków].

Methadone maintenance programs have effectively reduced opiate dependency and are available in many countries, also in Poland. In Kraków 50 persons were qualified to methadone maintenance treatment. Their age varied from 21 to 46 years, mean 27.8 years. Participants of the programme were mainly educated on basic technical level, unemployed, after 3 to 30 attempts of detoxification treatment. After initial observation at the Detoxification Unit of the Department of Clinical Toxicology and establishing effective daily oral dose of methadone, all patients in Outpatient Clinic of Abuse receive daily adequate dose of methadone, where in parallel, individual and group psychotherapy is used. Methadone programme which was applied seems to prove the fact, that it can significantly improve life quality of addicted patients as well as increase the level of public safety.