Symptom complaints of patients maintained on methadone, LAAM (methadyl acetate), and naltrexone at different times in their addiction careers.

In this study, side effect complaints were compared between methadone patients on a stable dose with no heroin use for at least 3 months and matched non-drug-using controls; between methadone patients when using and not using heroin; and between patients in treatment (stable dosage, no heroin use for at least one month) and at follow-up, when not using any opiates and no longer in treatment. This last comparison was done for methadone, LAAM (l-alpha-acetylmethadol, methadyl acetate), and naltrexone patients. Methadone patients had more complaints than did non-drug-using controls; patients in methadone treatment felt worse when using heroin than when not using heroin; methadone, LAAM, and naltrexone patients felt worse while in treatment than when they left treatment and stopped using all opiates; the level of complaints for patients abstinent from opiates at follow-up was not different from that reported by non-drug-using controls. The difficulty of ascribing the symptom complaints to the drugs, in the absence of placebo-treated control groups, is discussed.