Treatment of intravenous drug users with AIDS: the role of methadone maintenance.

Methadone maintenance programs are treating increasing numbers of HIV-infected IVDUs. Methadone treatment offers the opportunity to constructively intervene in the lives of these patients by helping to prevent the further spread of AIDS and by providing medical, psychiatric, and social services. The need for expanded AIDS services presents a serious challenge to methadone programs. These programs will need added resources as well as new and more flexible treatment techniques to meet this challenge.