LGBT Drug Treatment Blog

Heroin Addiction Treatment
A variety of effective addiction treatment is available for heroin addiction. Heroin addiction treatment tends to be more effective when heroin abuse is identified early. The addiction treatments that follow vary depending on the individual, but methadone, a synthetic opiate that blocks the effects of heroin and eliminates withdrawal symptoms, has a proven record of success for people addicted to heroin. Other pharmaceutical approaches, such as buprenorphine, and many behavioral therapies also are used for the treatment of heroin addiction. Buprenorphine is a recent addition to the array of medications now available for the treatment of heroin addiction and other opiate addictions. This medication is different from methadone in that it offers less risk of addiction and can be prescribed in the privacy of a doctor’s office. Buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) is a combination drug product formulated to
minimize abuse. The best situation to administer this medication is within an addiction treatment program for the additional support people need..

Heroin Detoxification or Heroin Detox

Heroin detoxification programs aim to achieve safe and humane withdrawal from opiates by minimizing the severity of withdrawal symptoms and other medical complications. The primary objective of a heroin detoxification program is to relieve withdrawal symptoms while patients adjust to a drug-free state. Not in itself a treatment for heroin addiction, heroin detox is a useful step only when it leads into long-term addiction treatment that is either drug-free (residential or outpatient) or uses medications as part of the treatment. The best documented drug-free treatments are the therapeutic community residential programs lasting 3 to 6 months. Heroin addiction treatment programs today, generally last 40 days.

Opiate withdrawal is rarely fatal. It is characterized by acute withdrawal symptoms which peak 48 to 72 hours after the last opiate dose and disappear within 7 to 10 days, to be followed by a longer term abstinence syndrome of general malaise and opioid craving.

Buprenorphine Addiction Treatment

A medication for opiate addiction treatment was developed to treat opiate addiction in the privacy of a physician’s office. This has not proven to be especially effective on an outpatient basis as a person suffering from opiate addiction tends to hang around old friends who are also suffering from opiate addiction and relapse results. You are better off taking buprenorphine for opiate detox in an addiction treatment program.
 
Methadone addiction treatment programs

Methadone addiction treatment has been used for more than 30 years to effectively and safely for opiate addiction treatment. Properly prescribed methadone is not intoxicating or sedating, and its effects do not interfere with ordinary activities such as driving a car. The medication is taken orally and it suppresses narcotic withdrawal for 24 to 36 hours. Patients are able to perceive pain and have emotional reactions. Most important, methadone relieves the craving associated with heroin addiction; craving is a major reason for relapse. Among methadone patients, it has been found that normal street doses of heroin are ineffective at producing euphoria, thus making the use of heroin more easily extinguishable.

Methadone’s effects last four to six times as long as those of heroin, so people in opiate addiction treatment need to take it only once a day. Also, methadone is medically safe even when used continuously for 10 years or more. Combined with behavioral therapies or counseling and other supportive services, methadone enables patients to stop using heroin (and other opiates) and return to more stable and productive lives. Methadone dosages must be carefully monitored in patients who are receiving antiviral therapy for HIV infection, to avoid potential medication interactions.

Addiction Treatment and Behavioral Therapy

Although behavioral and pharmacologic treatment for addiction can be extremely useful when employed alone, science has taught us that integrating both types of treatment for addiction will ultimately be the most effective approach. There are many effective behavioral therapies available for heroin addiction treatment. These can include residential addiction treatment and outpatient treatment approaches. An important task is to match the best treatment program approach to meet the particular needs of the patient. Moreover, several new behavioral therapies, such as contingency management therapy and cognitive-behavioral interventions, show particular promise as treatments for
heroin addiction, especially when applied in concert with pharmacotherapy’s. Contingency management therapy uses a voucher- based system, where patients earn “points” based on negative drug tests, which they can exchange for items that encourage healthy living. Cognitive-behavioral interventions are designed to help modify the patient’s expectations and behaviors related to drug use, and to increase skills in coping with various life stressors. Both behavioral and pharmacological treatments help to restore a degree of normalcy to brain function and behavior, with increased employment rates and lower risk of HIV and other diseases and criminal behavior.