Adding heroin to methadone treatment of chronic heroin addicts who had been resistant to treatment is cost effective from a societal perspective. In a cost utility analysis based on two randomised controlled trials, Dijkgraaf and colleagues (p 1297) found co-prescribed heroin to be associated with 0.058 more quality adjusted life years per patient per year and a mean saving of £8793 per patient per year. The initial higher cost of adding heroin to the treatment was compensated for by lower costs of law enforcement and damage to victims of crime.
Figure 1.
Credit: ACT/REX