Abstract : Drug addiction causes complications, mortality, rising costs and various socio-economic problems at individual to social level. Methadone is one of the most commonly used drugs to help addicts maintain their drug withdrawal process and eventually permanent withdrawal. Although, based on the evidence, favorable clinical experiences with methadone use have been reported in improving withdrawal symptoms, however, the use of this substance by conventional methods is not expected to reach the clinical goal in some cases. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of khomree and standard methadone detoxification in reducing opioid withdrawal symptoms. This study was a double-blind randomized clinical trial among opium addicts (at least one year of use) referred to the Substance Abuse Research Center. 80 persons were randomly assigned into one of two standard and khomree groups according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients were evaluated for signs and symptoms of drug withdrawal on days 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28 after initiation of treatment. Finally, the results were analyzed in SPSS-18. Changes in sweating intensity (P = 0.001), runny nose (Rhinorrhea) (P = 0.001), tears fall (P = 0.001), mouthwatering (P = 0.001) and substance-seeking (P = 0.001) in both groups during the 28 days of treatment had a significant decrease. However, occupational-social dysfunction (P = 0.001), muscle jump (P = 0.001), and hypothermia (P = 0.001) were significantly improved in the khomree treated group and in the standard method (dysfunction: P = 0.004, muscle jump: P = 0.001 and hypothermia: P = 0.001) it was significantly worse. According to our results, although the clinical response was in some cases in favor of more effective use of the khomree method in the improvement of withdrawal symptoms, however, the use of the standard method and the khomree method in methadone detoxification in opium addicts had almost similar effects.
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