THE TREATMENT OF METHADONE

The Treatment of Methadone

The treatment of Methadone

Introduction

MMT (Methadone Maintenance Treatment), a form of opiate replacement therapy, reduces and/or eliminates the use of illicit opiates, the criminality associated with opiate use, and allows patients to improve their health and social productivity. In addition, enrollment in methadone maintenance has the potential to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases associated with opiate injection, such as hepatitis and HIV. The principal effects of methadone maintenance are to relieve narcotic craving, suppress the abstinence syndrome, and block the euphoric effects associated with opiates. Methadone maintenance has been found to be medically safe and non-sedating. It is also indicated for pregnant women addicted to opiates. In Russia, (American Methadone Treatment Association, 1998, 102) methadone treatment is illegal. Health officials are not convinced of the treatment's efficacy. Instead, doctors encourage immediate abstinence from drug use, rather than the gradual process that methadone substitution therapy entails. Patients are often given sedatives and painkillers to cope with withdrawal symptoms.

Discussion/ Personal Thoughts on the treatment of Methadone

I know of a couple of people out there who are addicted to Methadone and from what I have seen, this is actually worse than being addicted to heroin in some ways. The real problem has to do with the way methadone metabolizes in the body….which is to say, it does so very, very slowly. In other words, it is a “sticky” drug in that it clings in the body for a long time and makes it very, very difficult to stop taking the drug. Heroin and most other opiates process out of the body much quicker and are therefore actually easier to detox from.

Those who are on methadone have usually experienced at least a taste of what this withdrawal is going to feel like, so they become trapped in a cycle of taking more methadone (duh, this is addiction we are talking about here!). But understand that with methadone this tendency is far worse than with other drugs, because the withdrawal symptoms are so extremely uncomfortable and they are drawn out over an even longer period of time. Heroin withdrawal might take about 3 to 5 days, but methadone withdrawal can take well over a week, depending on a number of factors.

For what it is worth, I work in a treatment center, and have done so for over 4 years now. I have seen a number of clients who have tried drug therapy over the years, both methadone maintenance as well as other forms of drug therapy (such as Suboxone maintenance). Just based on my observations here (please note this is not scientific), I am seeing more and more that drug therapy does not work in the long run. Why do I say this?

Because nearly every person who has been put on drug therapy at the treatment center has come back for detox and more treatment down the road. It would be easy to ignore if this were happening with maybe half of the cases or ...