Methadone dose and retention during treatment of heroin addicts with Axis I psychiatric comorbidity

We studied 90 opioid-dependent subjects, 38 with one or more additional Axi s I diagnosis and 52 with no psychiatric comorbidity. There were significan t differences between these two groups regarding the methadone dose require d for clinical stabilization, but not in the rate of retention in treatment . Dual Diagnosis patients, those with psychiatric comorbidity, required an average stabilization dose of 154 +/- 84 of methadone compared to 99 +/- 49 mg/day for patients whose only Axis I diagnosis was Opioid Dependence. In the 990-day period considered there were no differences between the two gro ups of patients in terms of retention in treatment.