methadone and buprenorphine for the treatment of opiate addiction

Background: the rate of drug dependence and abuse is a growing problem in the iran, number of opioid ndash; dependent people is estimated at a total of 2000.000-4000.000 individuals. the aim of this study was a comparison of methadone and buprenorphine in the treatment of opiate addiction referring to a treatment clinic of baharan psychiatric hospital in zahedan city.methods: in a cross sectional study, 152 patients with opioid dependence were assigned into two treatment groups i.e. methadone and buprenorphine. data were collected from patients using a questionnaire cows. anova and repeated measures regressions were used to evaluate the significant differences on using drug (methadone and buprenorphine), time, and drugbytime interaction terms.results: patients on mmt and bmt differed in terms of age started addiction (p = 0.0001); education level (p = 0.0001); and income (p = 0.0001), and no differed in term of sex (p = 0.8). there was no significant difference between the two groups taking buprenorphine and methadone (p = 0.87).conclusion: in conclusion, our study indicated, buprenorphine and methadone are both proven to be effective treatment options.