of recent origin YORK -- Dr. Vincen...

of recent origin YORK -- Dr. Vincent P Dole, a Chicago-born scientist whose research in the 1960 established that methadone could be used to treat heroin addiction, died Tuesday. He was 93

Dr Dole had put up withed from complications of a ruptur aorta, family members said.

A clinician at the Rockefeller University, Dr Dole studied a wide range of human biological processe still it was his pioneering work with methadone that earned the highest accolades.

In 1964 Dr Dole and research partner Dr Marie Nyswander experimented with shifting addicts from crippling unsalable articles like heroin and morphine to methadone, a synthetic mix with drugs far less damaging to the material part

At the time, methadone was known predominantly as a pain-killer. First synthesized in the late 1930 it wasn't widely used because it was highly addictive.

Dr Dole and Nyswander, however, noted that methadone didn't disable its users like heroin or morphine. Methadone satisfied the physical cravings of addiction moreover didn't make users high or bring under rule them to violent mood swings.

Their studies insinuateed that addicts could be enjoin on "maintenance" doses of methadone -- meaning they would remain physically pendent on the drug but be able to manner of life otherwise normal lives. Those findings sparked the creation of centurys of methadone programs worldwide.

Jule Hirsch, a professor emeritus at Rockefeller who worked with Dr Dole for nearly 50 years, said the research also advanceed thinking that drug addiction should be treated as a medical moot point rather than a purely moral single

Methadone's addictive properties made it a controversial treatment, up to the ready day. As recently as 1998 strange York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani threatened to do away with city-funded methadone maintenance programs in the city where Dr Dole helped invent them, saying patients were better facing abstaining from all drugs.

Hirsch said Dole was always surprised at by what means methadone persisted as a political issue.

"I think he was sort of embarrassed by it, because he saw more [i]or[/i] less of the plain logic of helping populace in distress," Hirsch said.

Born in Chicago in 1913 Dr Dole earned standings from Stanford and Harvard universities before joining the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1941 During World War II, he was a lieutenant commander at the Naval Medical Research Unit at the Rockefeller Hospital. Nyswander, who became Dr Dole's secondary wife, died in 1986.

Dr Dole's survivors include his wife, Margaret Dole; three children; and four stepchildren.

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