Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Review Article

Reduction in Acquisitive Crime During a Heroin-Assisted Treatment: a Post-Hoc Study

¹Institute for Human and Social Sciences, University of Liège, 4000, Belgium

²Department of Psychiatry, University of Liège, 4000, Belgium

³Department of Psychology, Cognition and Behaviour, University of Liège, 4000, Belgium

Corresponding Author:

Isabelle Demaret
Institute for Human and Social Sciences
Boulevard du Rectorat 3 (B31) at 4000 Liège, Belgium
Tel: 003243663158
E-mail: isabelle.demaret@ulg.ac.be

Received date: February 13, 2015; Accepted date: February 18, 2015; Published date: February 25, 2015

Citation: Demaret I, Deblire C, Litran G, Magoga C, Quertemont E, et al. (2015) Reduction in Acquisitive Crime During a Heroin-Assisted Treatment: a Post-Hoc Study. J Addict Res Ther 6:208. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000208

Copyright: © 2015 Demaret I, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: We investigated the evolution of the criminal involvement of severe heroin addicts recruited in a randomised controlled trial comparing heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) to methadone treatment.

Method: During the trial, detailed questions were asked on crimes committed and experienced at baseline and every 3 months during 12 months. We analysed our data in a post-hoc study.

Results: Severe heroin addicts included in the trial showed a high level of criminal involvement in the past but their involvement had decreased at baseline. At the 12-month assessment, crimes committed and experienced decreased significantly in both groups but the difference between the groups was not significant.

Conclusion: A new opioid maintenance treatment, with methadone or diacetylmorphine, can help severe heroin users to decrease their criminal involvement.

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