ABSTRACT
Treatments for problem drug users which are delivered by medical staff usually involve prescribing. Medical treatments, however, are only effective as part of a combined approach which may involve various psychological and social interventions, including those falling under the broad title of ‘counselling’. Medical treatments have progressed in parallel with the development of new drug regimes. Medical treatments can be divided into two main categories: replacement prescribing and detoxification techniques. The supplying of replacement opiates for the treatment of opiate addiction has been practiced medically in the UK. The report of the Rolleston committee saw replacement prescribing as a ‘legitimate medical treatment’ if opiate addicts were being gradually withdrawn in order to ‘cure’ their addiction or were unable to function in society without a ‘certain, non-progressive quantity’ of the drug of addiction. Many of specialist drug services have been reluctant to embrace so-called ‘medical model’ approaches, tending to rely on psychotherapeutically-based methods such as counselling or cognitive-behaviour therapy.
