What are the usual drugs that can treat heroin addiction?
October 28, 2009 by Addiction and Substance Abuse Tips
Filed under Addiction Detox & Rehab
Can you answer billie s’s question about Addiction?:
I’ve always thought that it was just therapy, counseling, and rehabilitation that’s used to treat addictions. But recently I found out that others are given medication as well. I was just wondering what these drugs are.
Inpatient Substance Abuse Treatment
I’ve always thought that it was just therapy, counseling, and rehabilitation that’s used to treat addictions. But recently I found out that others are given medication as well. I was just wondering what these drugs are.
Inpatient Substance Abuse Treatment
Addiction Feedback: Methadone is the most widely used treatment for heroin addiction. It’s a synthetic opiate medication that blocks the effects of heroin and has been proven to be successful in treating heroin addicts. Other medications used are naloxone (used for cases of overdose), naltrexone, and buprenorphine. There are also other drugs that are undergoing study to determine if they would be effective in treating heroin addiction.
Addiction Feedback: They mostly use methadone to treat heroine addicts. Methadone is addictive too but not as dangerous as heroine
Addiction Feedback: Methadone
Addiction Feedback: Methadone is the most common, but is being replaced in many rehab programs because the street value is increasing and it can still give a euphoric effect. Another drug that has started to come into play is called LAAM and does not give the patient the euohoric effect of opium and so it does not have the abuse potential that methadone does. Buprenoriphen is also used in opiate maintenance recovery, but is more widely used as a detox mediation.
These medications are only part of a treatment plan though. There still needs to be counseling, education and group support systems like NA.