Epidemic of Opioid Dependence

Opioid addiction is an epidemic that has ravaged hundreds of thousands of Americans’ lives (NIDA, 2014). One of the reasons opioid addiction is so overpowering is that people feel like they need to continue utilizing the medications with the end goal to fight off withdrawal. Many people with heroin addictions start with prescription painkillers, oftentimes for perfectly valid reasons (e.g. an accident, surgery, or other medical needs). Once a person’s body becomes used to opioids yet doesn’t get enough of the medications to fulfill what it’s utilized to, withdrawal can occur, causing symptoms such as extreme sickness, nausea, diarrhea, and full-body pain (NIDA, 2014).

When the prescription runs out and the person has developed a physical dependence, they may end up turning to heroin, which can generally be found for much lower prices.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013), or DSM5, to meet the criteria for a substance use disorder it’s insufficient for somebody to just use drugs.

All things considered, many US adults use drugs, some consistently or daily, with no issues at all. For someone to qualify for a substance use disorder, they must be using drugs in a hazardous way, either to themselves or others. So somebody with an opioid use disorder would not simply be utilizing opioids but rather conceivably utilizing these medications in a way that puts him or others in possible danger, such as being willing to break the law to get said drugs or using the drugs so much that they put themselves in danger of overdose and overall limit their functionality in their daily lives (APA, 2013).

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Fundamentally, substance use needs to hold somebody back from being a healthy, working individual in society to meet the requirements of addiction.

With this understanding, medication-assisted treatment is an option for those who want to stop using heroin safely. For people who have a severe addiction to opioids, Methadone or buprenorphine (otherwise called Suboxone) have proven to be successful complementary or assistive devices in addiction treatment. Drugs like Methadone and Suboxone can stop the dangerous addictive cycle. Since they are opioids themselves, they can satisfy a person’s cravings and stop withdrawal side effects. The key is that they do this in a controlled treatment setting, and when taken as recommended don’t deliver the euphoric high that opioids do when they are abused (NIDA, 2014). By doing this, an opioid addict altogether decreases the danger of relapse, since he doesn’t need to stress over evading withdrawal any longer.

Medication-assisted treatment is not the same as the traditional ways of managing drug dependence in America, many of which tend to recommend abstinence. The norms in this field are 12-step programs, which join profound and moralistic goals into a care group for individuals experiencing addiction. While some 12-step programs permit medication-assisted treatment, others restrict it as a major aspect of their interest for complete abstinence from drugs. As a result, many clients find themselves in a situation in which they feel judged and ostracized by the very same community that in many cases may be the only source of support.

There are various types of medications that target opioid dependence, which will work better or worse depending upon an individual’s condition. Therefore, these prescriptions will be given out in a case-by-case manner. Methadone, for instance, is given out in a designated facility, normally one to four times each day, which implies patients will have to make the outing to a center on a customary premise.

As with any medication, methadone use comes with its risks. A danger of utilizing methadone as a detox medication that should be considered, and what has made its use in treating opioid addiction so controversial, is that some people can create a tolerance to and reliance on the medication if they are taking too much over a longer period. Trying to get off methadone in these cases and without assistance can prompt its very own withdrawal symptoms, for example, vomiting, chills, fever, runny nose, crying, fast pulse, and other physical impacts. Methadone is also attached to some abuse and a large number of dangerous overdoses a year — although for the most part, this occurs when it’s utilized for pain management, not addiction treatment (Faul, Bohm & Alexander, 2017). Therefore, methadone is best endorsed for short-term use, sufficiently long to enable the individual to manage the hardest parts of withdrawal from heroin. While withdrawal side effects are possible on methadone, they are considered to be less severe than that of heroin.

Buprenorphine, on the other hand, is a medication that can be taken at home and is taken on more than one occasion per day, yet the at-home access additionally implies it may lead to abuse and possibly sold through illegal channels. Buprenorphine is considered to be less harmful because, different from normal painkillers, heroin, and methadone, its effect has a ceiling, which means it has no significant impact after a specific dosage level (NIDA, 2014). In any case, people can abuse, especially individuals with lower tolerance levels.

Another medication, known as naltrexone or its brand name, Vivitrol, isn’t an opioid, making it less likely to abuse, and just should be injected once every month. Be that as it may, it likewise requires full detoxification to utilize, while buprenorphine just requires a partial detoxification process. Furthermore, rather than stopping withdrawal, it blocks the impacts of opioids on specific dosages, making it substantially harder to get high or overdose on the medications.

Research looking at naltrexone and buprenorphine found that once individuals get on possibly, they are also viable. Be that as it may, that accompanies a noteworthy proviso: It was significantly harder to kick individuals off on naltrexone than buprenorphine because naltrexone requires a detox period. So buprenorphine is more available and powerful than naltrexone, although outcomes can vary from person to person.

One thing to consider is that even these medications, although they are the best types of opioid addiction treatment available, don’t work for as much as 40 percent of opioid-addicted clients (NIDA, 2015). Some people may favor not taking any substances since they see any medication use at all as hindering their recovery. Others may not react well physically to the medication, or the medication may for reasons unknown do nothing to prevent them from abusing drugs. What works for a few people, even the greater part, isn’t always going to work for everybody.

When used in short-term settings, methadone maintenance treatment limits or prevents the most debilitating heroin withdrawal symptoms and also dulls what would be considered the desired effects of a heroin hit and cuts down on cravings for heroin. Subsequently, this methodology offers clients a directed break from the constant need to obtain and use heroin and gives a way to the possible restoration of a healthy lifestyle. In comparison to heroin, methadone isn’t just legal, it is additionally notably less unsafe, even though consideration ought to be taken while using opioids of any sort, particularly among the individuals who have exhibited a particular disposition to addictive behaviors.

Research has discovered that methadone maintenance diminishes unlawful heroin use, and utilizing methadone as a short-term detox medication additionally reduces the spread of infectious diseases, like HIV and hepatitis, that are contracted by using shared needles (NIDA, 2014). Programs that use methadone have additionally been found to lessen criminal action, enhance social skills and family relationships, and even reduce death rates among patients (y.

Historically, addicts have been largely rejected by society. “Heroin addicts were regarded as nothing more than manipulative schemers, criminal sociopaths who had to be locked up to protect society from their predations.” (Goldstein, p164). Moralistic criticism and stigma are still embedded in how the US considers and treats addiction. Understandably many people can see using another substance essentially as a crutch. However, there continues to be widespread misinformation about how medications like Methadone work, which feeds into the ever-growing stigma toward addiction. In the treatment of heroin addiction, utilizing Methadone remains a questionable methodology. Reactions and worries about its use can be refuted by its efficiency, particularly with an issue as concerning as heroin addiction, when a great part of the nation is held by an ascent in opioid-related overdoses and deaths. Research has shown that medication-assisted treatment can cut the all-cause death rate among addiction patients significantly (Mattick, Breen, Kimber & Davoli, 2009).

Of course, it should not be expected that an addict will recover using Methadone or Suboxone alone. There are risks involved in using methadone to treat heroin addiction. Methadone use should only take place under strict medical supervision. Medication can likewise be matched with different sorts of treatment for better outcomes. It tends to be utilized paired with intellectual social treatment or comparable methodologies, which show medicate clients how to manage issues or settings that can prompt backslide. The majority of that can likewise be matched with 12-step programs like AA and NA or other care groups in which individuals cooperate and demonstrate accountability in the battle against dependence.

The key with medication-assisted treatment is that while it involves a substitution of a drug with another, it transforms that medication use into a significantly safer practice. So as opposed to taking to get heroin or utilizing painkillers so much that they put their lives in danger, a person engaging in medication-assisted treatment can use methadone or buprenorphine to meet their physical needs and be able to function in their daily lives.