Changes In QTc Interval Duration Among Heroin Addicts On Methadone Treatment

This paper aimed to collect and unite facts known about the effect of methadone treatment on QTc interval prolongation that could determine precipitating factors in the development of heart arrhythmias and their consequences (Torsade de Pointes and sudden cardiac death), and to raise the methadone treatment safety level.

Studies conducted up to now clearly demonstrate that methadone therapy evokes changes in the heart’s electrical conduction, but those studies also show that QTc interval prolongation could be precipitated by other factors. The most often present risk factors in our research were dose of methadone, co-medication, and co-morbidity, but other relevant risk factors were gender, age, misuse of illicit drugs, therapy length and tobacco use.

Active participation in modern treatment processes and implementation of knowledge acquired recently into daily practice, such as setting up reutilized questionnaires and diagnostic methods to expose higher risk for complications and providing broader therapeutic range for cases of drug replacement necessity, will enhance therapy safety level and bring us to the next step of resocialization of these patients, which needs to remain the final goal of treatment.