Vincent Dole (18 May 1913, in Chicago – 1 August 2006) was an American doctor, who, along with his wife, Marie Nyswander (died 1986), developed the use of methadone to treat heroin addiction.
Physicians and pharmacists, who risked being investigated by the Treasury Department officials that monitored their prescriptions, were wary of placing many patients on maintenance.
[3] Dole's patients not only largely stopped heroin use, they expressed an interest in family, friends, work, and becoming fully engaged members of society once more.
Dole found that the shift of priorities from daily drug-cravings and the endless quest to keep the abstinence syndrome at bay restored to these individuals an inherent sense of self-worth; they resumed family responsibilities as well as employment.
The doctors noted that although methadone satisfied the physical cravings of heroin addiction, patients soon became completely tolerant to its effects.