Advantages and disadvatanges of methadone treatment

The paper aims to provide the actual operation of the Methadone Centre established in Banja Luka in 2009. as part of the international Global Fund Project and titled as Coordinated National Response to HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis in the war-ravaged and extremely stigmatized areas. The overall objectives of such programs is the reduction of harmful effects of opiate usage. The psychosocial treatment plan improves heroin withdrawal syndrome, implies a long-term treatment, and weakens the opiate abstention symptoms in general. Our studies have described the operation of the Methadone Centre from its opening until the present day with a reference to the structure of consumers, the number of patients undergoing certain types of treatment, the length of stay in these types of addiction treatment programs, the ways of leaving treatment programs, the number of patients involved in the psychosocial treatment programs. We have also given our estimation of the Centre’s efficency with possibilities of its further development. At the beginning of the implementation phase we were facing a lot of technical problems. During the progress of the project all the advantages and disadvatanges of the Centre’s operation under the roof of Clinical Centre of Banja Luka were shown. There are still certain problems we are facing on a daily basis which need to be solved, and all that is affecting the quality of treatment service and treatment outcome.