Evaluation of the effect of methadone maintenance treatment program on the frequency of DNA lesions revealed as micronuclei and sister chromatid exchanges.

: The aim of the present paper was to examine the effect of substitution methadone treatment on the frequency of DNA lesions using a micronuclear and a sister chromatid exchange tests. The material under study were lymphocyte cultures from peripheral blood, collected 3 times at 3-month intervals from 24 patients. The obtained results may suggest that methadone treatment combined with a change in lifestyle significantly reduces the risk of genome lesions.