ABSTRACT
RATIONALE: Methadone is the most widespread pharmacological treatment for opiate dependency but relatively little is known of its effects on cognitive and psychomotor functioning, drug craving and mood. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to assess the acute effects of methadone in patients admitted to an opiate detoxification programme. METHODS: Patients were randomly allocated to one of two groups who received either 50% or 100% of their daily stabilisation dose, and a placebo, in a double-blind, cross-over design. Twenty patients completed the study, all were assessed pre- and post-drug on 2 separate testing days. RESULTS: Performance on a task tapping episodic memory (delayed recall of a prose passage) was significantly impaired following the 100% daily dose of methadone. Methadone treatment had no effect on craving or mood. Patients were unable to distinguish between methadone and placebo treatments. CONCLUSIONS: A single dose of methadone can induce episodic memory impairment in patients who have a history of heroin use averaging more than 10 years. Such impairment can be avoided by giving methadone in divided doses.
Subject(s)
Affect/drug effects , Behavior, Addictive/drug therapy , Cognition/drug effects , Memory/drug effects , Methadone/administration & dosage , Narcotics/administration & dosage , Opioid-Related Disorders/drug therapy , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Behavior, Addictive/psychology , Cross-Over Studies , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Double-Blind Method , Female , Humans , Male , Opioid-Related Disorders/psychology , Psychomotor Performance/drug effects , Statistics, NonparametricABSTRACT
Quality of life has been found to be associated with social networks in patients with psychiatric disorders. We aimed to determine whether quality of life was related to social network size in group of severely mentally ill subjects living in the community. In a population-based, prospective controlled study of two sector mental health teams in South London, a random sample of representative 1-year prevalent cases of non-organic psychosis was identified. Patients were interviewed at baseline, and associations between quality of life and social network size were analyzed cross-sectionally. For average quality of life there was increase up to a certain level of social network size (about 20 social contacts). For the quality of life subscore on social relations there appeared to be an optimal middle level of network size (10-12), with lower subscores for smaller and larger networks. Multivariate analysis confirmed the associations between quality of life and social network size. In analyses of network subgroups the importance of confiding contacts was underlined.
