@article {1595,
	title = {Costs of Addressing Heroin Addiction in Malaysia and 32 Comparable Countries Worldwide.},
	journal = {Health services research},
	year = {2011},
	month = {2011 Oct 18},
	abstract = {OBJECTIVE: Develop and apply new costing methodologies to estimate costs of opioid dependence treatment in countries worldwide. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Micro-costing methodology developed and data collected during randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 126 patients (July 2003-May 2005) in Malaysia. Gross-costing methodology developed to estimate costs of treatment replication in 32 countries with data collected from publicly available sources. STUDY DESIGN: Fixed, variable, and societal cost components of Malaysian RCT micro-costed and analytical framework created and employed for gross-costing in 32 countries selected by three criteria relative to Malaysia: major heroin problem, geographic proximity, and comparable gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Medication, and urine and blood testing accounted for the greatest percentage of total costs for both naltrexone (29-53 percent) and buprenorphine (33-72 percent) interventions. In 13 countries, buprenorphine treatment could be provided for under $2,000 per patient. For all countries except United Kingdom and Singapore, incremental costs per person were below $1,000 when comparing buprenorphine to naltrexone. An estimated 100 percent of opiate users in Cambodia and Lao People{\textquoteright}s Democratic Republic could be treated for $8 and $30~million, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Buprenorphine treatment can be provided at low cost in countries across the world. This study{\textquoteright}s new costing methodologies provide tools for health systems worldwide to determine the feasibility and cost of similar interventions.},
	issn = {1475-6773},
	doi = {10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01335.x},
	author = {Ruger, Jennifer Prah and Chawarski, Marek and Mazlan, Mahmud and Luekens, Craig and Ng, Nora and Schottenfeld, Richard}
}
