THE USE OF NALTREXONE, AN OPIATE ANTAGONIST, IN THE TREATMENT OF OPIATE ADDICTION

Objective: The objective of this article is to review the use of the o piate antagonist naltrexone as an alternative to opiate agonist mainte nance in the treatment of opiate addiction. Method: An extensive liter ature search, via Medline, Biosis, Psycinfo and other databases was ca rried out. Results: Naltrexone has been used in the treatment of opiat e addicts in a variety of settings. A number of methods of induction o nto naltrexone of recently abstinent addicts have been used in differe nt settings. Naltrexone has had a wide range of outcome success with d ifferent populations and associated treatment regimes. Conclusions: Th e benefits of naltrexone can be compared with alternatives such as met hadone maintenance and therapeutic communities. Naltrexone can be made more effective in the general population of opiate addicts with the u se of adjunctive therapies.