Initial effects of the 1998 revised narcotic law in substitute drug treatment of narcotic dependent patients--results of a physician survey

To study the consequences of the last revision of the German narcotics act (1998, which forbids prescribing codeines as substitutes), a survey was carried out several months after implementation with 639 physicians, who gave substitution treatment. It could be determined how far codeine patients were ready to change their substitute, how content physicians said their patients were after changing the substitute and which were the attitudes of physicians to the revision in question. RESULTS: The majority of patients (70%) who were formerly substituted by means of codeine accepted methadone as a substitute. After the method of substitution had been changed, 51% of patients had been classified as "very content" and 35% as "reasonably content". Especially those physicians who prescribed codeines in the past, unlike physicians who used methadone for substitution treatment only, criticised the revision in question and feared that many patients should be without medical care as a consequence of the new situation.