Methadone Use: Methadone Facts

Question: Why is methadone used to treat heroin addiction when it's also an opiate just like heroin?

(Posted by: aisha t on 2007-05-31 01:35:07)

Wouldn't this be like fighting fire with fire? I don't get it. Please enlighten me.

Posted by: ahtziri s on 2007-05-31, 01:37:01

Methadone is used to treat heroin addiction because it has been proven to be safe and effective. When methadone is properly prescribed, it is not intoxicating or sedating. Its effects also do not interfere with normal activities. Methadone is taken orally and prevents withdrawal symptoms for 24 to 36 hours. Most noteworthy would be the fact that when methadone is taken, it relieves the individual's craving for heroin, the craving that happens to be the cause for relapse. Methadone is also medically safe, so people could still use it even for ten years straight. Coupled with therapy and counseling, methadone can help bring people back to their stable, productive lives.

Posted by: oklahoma_mommy on 2007-05-31, 01:43:33

Drug maintenance programs involve giving a person addicted to heroin a substitute drug that acts on opiate receptors in the brain but does not give the 'high' that heroin does. This allows the user to come off heroin without experiencing side effects. The person is no longer exposed to the health problems of injecting heroine, or the need to sell heroin or commit crimes to finance a heroin habit. Methadone, a synthetic opioid developed in Germany during the Second World War as a painkiller, is the most frequently used. Methadone isn't a cure for heroin addiction, but it does allow the addict to stabilise his or her life, stay free (hopefully) of using heroin, avoid health problems like overdose, transmission of HIV, skin abscesses from injecting and withdrawal symptoms from detoxing. On methadone, they can put their lives together, get (or keep) a job, and maintain relationships. After a period ranging from months to years, ideally they can gradually reduce their dose of methadone to zero and become drug-free, though some choose to stay on methadone indefinitely. Methadone is a very effective treatment program – it's has been shown to be more effective at keeping people off heroin and off crime than other treatments like detoxification and abstinence programs. Another drawback is that withdrawing from methadone also produces withdrawal symptoms. Some users claim that in fact it's more addictive than heroin and is actually harder to withdraw from than heroin is, though others dispute this. Many users are not able to reduce their dose, and stay 'parked' on methadone indefinitely. Some critics of methadone maintenance programs argue that it isn't really a treatment, it simply substitutes one opioid for another and continues the addict's opioid dependence.