DOXEPIN IN THE TREATMENT OF OPIOID WITHDRAWAL - CLINICAL-RESULTS

This paper reports retrospectively analyzed data derived from case not es of 72 opioid-dependent patients undergoing inpatient detoxification at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich, between 1990 u ntil 1992 in order to gather information on differential efficacy of v arious pharmacotherapy-assisted detoxification procedures. In summary, our data showed that heroin-/codeine-dependent patients given doxepin to alleviate acute opioid withdrawal symptoms more often successfully completed detoxification compared to those given prothipendyl or benz odiazepines. Doxepin seems to be a sufficiently efficacious pharmacolo gical agent in treatment of the acute opioid withdrawal syndrome with good tolerance and without producing dependence.