Why Methadone Is the Best Choice For Addiction Treatment

Facing an addiction of any kind is not easy. When it is heroin or another drug, it is even more difficult and seeking treatment can be a frightening, lonely and uncomfortable journey. Heroin is an increasingly popular drug that is serious;y impacting the adolescent population with more than 21,000 of them reporting having used it in 2015 and 5,000 indicating they were still active users. The right treatment clinic can make all the difference. Methadone clinics offer treatment based on the use of methadone as a medication to replace the addictive drug. Methadone treatments can be highly effective not only in helping the sufferer to go clean, but also in reducing the painful side effects that often accompany withdrawal.

Methadone is what is called an opioid analgesic and comes in a number of different forms, including as a liquid, a wafer or a pill. It is not an addiction cure, but it does work by blocking the effects of drugs such as codeine, morphine, oxycodone and others. In doing so, the methadone treatments act to decrease cravings for the addictive drug, reduce withdrawal symptoms and end the physical dependency on drugs such as heroin. It is usually used as part of a broader rehabilitation and treatment program.

Heroin addiction usually starts with the misuse of prescription pain killers with as many as four-fifths of all new users starting this way and about 23% of heroin users having an opioid addiction. More than two million of the more than 20 million Americans with substance use disorders had one that was related to the use of prescription pain medication and further 591,000 were related to the use of heroin. Worryingly the number one cause of death in the United States is drug overdose, with as many as 52,000 or more deaths from overdose occurring in 2015.

Methadone has been used to treat addiction to heroin an other drugs for more than half a century and is still the most effective treatment with addiction to opioids. The effects of methadone treatment last from a day to a day and a half (36 hours) and success rates average between 60% and 90%. This is compared to success arrest of just 5% to 10% for non-medical treatments that impose abstinence. The longer an addict remains on methadone treatment the better the outcome. There were over 270,000 people receiving methadone treatments in March of 2011, according to a study by SAMHSA.

Methadone clinics are all regulated by law and need to abide by strict regulations about how the treatment is administered.
Choosing a methadone center can greatly increase your chances of rehabilitation and minimise the negative effects of withdrawal.