Background: Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) is a new form of treatment for heroin-dependent patients not responding to conventional interventions such as methadone maintenance treatment. No pregnancies or births under HAT have been reported until now.
Case: The pregnancy course of a 31-year-old severely dependent multi-morbid woman receiving HAT and the birth of a healthy baby after premature delivery is described. HAT helped to reduce the use of illicit substances both before and during pregnancy. The neonatal abstinence syndrome was clinically well compensated.
Conclusion: HAT seems to be feasible in pregnant women and normal birth is possible under HAT, which therefore may act as a harm reduction measure for polydrug-using pregnant women not responding to methadone maintenance treatment.
(c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel