Pain pill addiction treatment in Europe

The treatment related to pain pill addiction often involves a treatment for many kinds of pain pills. One type of substitution treatment remains the predominant treatment option for this group, even if in the European States, the availability of substitution treatment is limited and drug-free treatment remains common. It should also be noted that the Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden, consumers amphetamine injection represents a significant proportion of people receiving treatment for pain pill addiction.

The available data on persons seeking assistance for pain pill addiction indicate that the characteristics of these people are diverse. In addition to intravenous heroin or intravenously, a series of multiple, consumption of pain pill are reported. In 2002, for the first time, an indicator of demand for treatment of the EMCDDA has shown that in the 11 countries for which data were available, the pain pill had been supplanted as pain pill drugs for which the greatest number of patients were sent to treatment in outpatient centers. The question to what extent this reflects changes in reporting practices, expansion of services or changes in the characteristics of those needing assistance is discussed in detail in the section entitled "question on the problems associated with pain pill in their context."

Increasingly, we recognize that addiction services should be integrated with other health care services, particularly services for marginalized and socially disadvantaged. The effective care of people who have both addictions and mental health disorders is a particularly difficult challenge. This topic is discussed in the "issue" on the psychiatric morbidity.