Heroin addicts and methadone treatment in Albuquerque: a 22-year follow-up (1995)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8745136?dopt=Abstract

Drug overdose, violence, alcohol, or suicide accounted for nearly all deaths of which the causes were known. Despite the availability of treatment, including methadone maintenance, both heroin use and criminality continued at a high rate. Of the 428 known survivors, 48% were currently enrolled in a methadone program after 22 years… Our findings offer an insight into heroin addiction as a chronic lifelong relapsing disease with a high fatality rate.