Results indicate that a higher proportion of people treated with symptomatic medications reentered treatment than those treated with buprenorphine or methadone. Methadone maintenance appeared to have been more effective than buprenorphine at preventing premature drop-out from treatment of adolescent heroin users. The results are not consistent with the hypothesis that induction into methadone treatment has entrenched the patients’ problems. This Australian study was a retrospective file review of all adolescent patients treated for opioid dependence at the Langton Center since August 2000. Sixty-one adolescents participated in the study ranging in age from 14 to 17. Sixty-one percent were female. The first episode of treatment was methadone maintenance in 20 subjects, buprenorphine in 25, symptomatic medication in 15, and 1 patient who underwent assessment only. 1 table, 1 figure, and 16 references