Evaluation of clinic attendance schedules for LAAM and methadone: A controlled study

The authors randomly assigned 95 male narcotic addicts to one of four treatment conditions: either methadone or LAAM maintenance and one of two drug-appropriate clinic attendance schedules. Although no differences were observed among treatment conditions on any of the outcome measures employed, the conclusion that the drugs and attendance regimens were equally efficacious and acceptable was made cautiously due to the relatively small sample size and to the observed trend (p = .10) in favor of methadone maintenance combined with the 3-day (LAAM-appropriate) attendance schedule. There was no evidence of untoward physical effects associated with any of the treatment approaches.