Background: The simultaneous use of heroin and amphetamine has become widespread among drug users in the last ten years. Every year, many people refer to recovery centers to quit these two drugs; however, only a few percent of the clients recover. Considering the low percentage of recovery of addicts, we investigated the effect of three drugs, clonidine, gabapentin, and nortriptyline, on their recovery rate.
Materials and Methods: This article is a result of a master's thesis in the field of clinical psychology. This cohort study investigated all 91 heroin and amphetamine-addicted patients treated with clonidine (n=29), gabapentin (n=31), and nortriptyline (n=30) admitted to Mehr Khorramabad Psychiatric Hospital during 2023. These patients were entered into the study by census method. Information related to demographic characteristics as well as the status of the three-month recovery periods were extracted from the patients' files. The data were analyzed in SPSS version 23 software and the relationship between the variables was checked using the Chi-square test.
Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the three treatment groups in terms of the three-month improvement ratio (P=0.001). Accordingly, this rate was lower in the gabapentin group than in the other two groups. In the group receiving gabapentin, the proportion of three-month improvement was higher in the age group older than or equal to 30 years than in those younger than 30 years (31.3% vs. 7.1%).
Conclusion: Clonidine and nortriptyline are more suitable for recovery and reduction of withdrawal symptoms.
