Dual addictions, parallel treatments: nicotine replacement therapy for patients receiving methadone treatment in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This parallel, randomized, open-ended clinical trial tested the impact of nicotine replacement pharmacotherapy during the course of methadone treatment among opiate abusers. A total of 424 men entered the study at 4 drug treatment centres in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The intervention group received a 6-week regimen of nicotine replacement pharmacotherapy at no charge. After 6 months, 211 persons (99.5%) in the control group continued to smoke and 1 person (0.5%) had quit. In the intervention group, 117 (55.1%) persons smoked, 15 (7.1%) persons had quit and 80 (37.7%) had reduced by more than 50% the number of cigarettes they smoked at the start of the study (P < 0.0001). The findings suggest that the use of nicotine replacement pharmacology in tandem with methadone maintenance treatment can lead to dramatically improved efficacy for treatment of dual addictions.