Buprenorphine treatment: a three-year prospective study in opioid-addicted patients of a public out-patient addiction center in Milan.

The data shown here were collected with an open label prospective design from March 2001 to February 2004 while conducting routine recruitment and therapy of heroin-addicted patients. All of the data collected demonstrate the safety and efficacy of buprenorphine therapy and different characteristics observed in buprenorphine patients versus methadone patients.

Multimodal drug addiction treatment: a field comparison of methadone and buprenorphine among heroin- and cocaine-dependent patients.

Aims: Our objective was to compare the effectiveness of buprenorphine (BUP) and methadone maintenance treatment in opiate-addicted patients in a clinical nonexperimental setting.

Design: We used a naturalistic observational prospective study of 24 months' duration.

Setting: Subjects were enrolled and treated at a drug addiction outpatient clinic of the National Health System Local Unit in Milan, Italy.