Scientists have not only identified a critical gene involved in heroin addiction relapse, but they have also successfully blocked it, eliminating cravings for the drug. The study was conducted on heroin-addicted rats. But the researchers now think that, within a few years, better treatments will become available to human heroin users who cannot quit due to insidious cycles of relapse. “Many people try to stop taking heroin, but in a few months almost all of them go back to using the drug,” said Ivan Diamond, at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center in California, US, and one of the research team.
| Drug | Dose | Methadone equivalent |
| 'street' heroin | 1g of powder | 50-60mg * |
| diamorphine | 10mg | 10mg |
| morphine | 10mg | 10mg |
| dihydrocodeine | 30mg | 3mg |
| pethidine | 50mg | 5mg |
| buprenorphine | 0.2mg | 5mg |
| codeine phosphate | 30mg | 2mg |
| pentazocine | 50mg | 4mg |
* this is what is generally required clinically - given that usually purity of street heroin is 20-30%
Reference: Seivewright N (2000). Community treatment of drug misuse: more than methadone. Cambridge University Press.
