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An opioid treatment being introduced around Australia has been dubbed a game changer after dozens of users at Melbourneâs safe injecting room stopped taking heroin.
The Richmond site was among the first in Australia to provide depot buprenorphine, a slow-release injection given weekly or monthly, outside clinical trials after it was approved for use in September 2019.
Dr Nico Clark at Richmondâs safe injecting room.
Credit:Eddie Jim
The treatment is designed to stop withdrawal symptoms, and in most cases blocks the effects of heroin altogether, helping to reduce and stop heroin use.
Medical director Dr Nico Clark has analysed the experiences of the first 41 people to try it at his clinic, finding that 59 per cent did not use heroin at the safe injecting room at all over eight months of monitoring from September 2019 to April 2020.
New evidence that opioid agonists such as methadone and buprenorphine could substantially reduce drug related deaths if more widely used in the community and prison, and for longer, has been published in
New evidence that opioid agonists such as methadone and buprenorphine could substantially reduce drug-related deaths if more widely used in the community and prison, and for longer, has been published in Lancet Psychiatry.
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