Supervising subject area: Dr. Stefan Gutwinski, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Diamorphine therapy, a substitution therapy for people diagnosed with opioid dependence, has been available in Germany since 2009. Clinical studies have shown it to be significantly more effective than conventional substitution therapies, yet numerous hurdles exist. Both §5a BtMVV and §13 BtMG contain extensive restrictions for patients and practicing physicians. There are hardly any other medical therapies with comparably high requirements. This handling is also reflected in the numbers of patients: only 1.1 percent of all substitution therapies in Germany are carried out with diamorphine. In the research tutorial, we used reviews, interviews with experts and qualitative interviews to investigate whether the legally prescribed hurdles to diamorphine therapy are (still) justifiable.

Contact: jakob.eichler@hu-berlin.de and johanna.klag@hu-berlin.de