A clinical, controlled study of l-alpha-acetylmethadol in the treatment of narcotic addiction

Abstract

The authors compared l-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM) with methadone for clinical effectiveness in the treatment of narcotic addiction. LAAM was as effective as methadone on all outcome measures, including length of stay in treatment. Two clinicopharmacologic properties of LAAM caused some patients to ask for a switch to methadone. The authors describe these phenomena and discuss their impact on the clinical effectiveness of LAAM.