Addiction in Medication Drug Therapy?
Question by cerebro: addiction in medication drug therapy?
What are the cons in medication drug addiction therapy? Please include links to sources.
Best answer:
Answer by The Directioner
What’s so bad about getting help with a problem?
Answer by Andrea K
I am currently on Methadone and have been for 5 years. I am a huge proponent of it. It has allowed me to get my life back. However, there are serious cons to taking it. I have gained 70 pounds, sweat profusely and am hot all the time, and sometimes feel lethargic. Also, Methadone as well as drugs like Suboxen are synthetic opites, meaning you are still dependent on opiates, so if you stop taking the medication you will go into withdrawal unless you taper slowly. Also, some people have to remain on it for long periods of time, like myself. I have gone off 3 times in the past and was using again within three days. Also with Methadone, you typically have to go to a clinic daily and take your dose, at least at first. At my clinic in VA, you can earn takehomes, which means you don’t have to go to the clinic everyday. To get these, you have to have clean drug screens, attend groups, and be stable in your dose. It usually takes a few months to get your first takehome, then after 90 days you can get 2, after 120 days you can get, and so one. At one year you can get up to 13, at least where I go. Also, Methadone is expensive. Mine is $ 84 a week, and my clinic won’t take insurance for medication, however some do. I think it depends on the clinic, the state, and the type of insurance. Some counties and cities will subsidize your Methadone costs.Even at $ 84 a week,it is far less than I was spending on drugs before. There are also many pros to medically assisted addiction treatment. First the drugs they give you are much longer acting, so you can live your life without have to always needing drugs. Methadone is taken once daily and has a 24 hour halflife, which means if you take 100 mgs, 24 hours later you still have 50 mgs in your system. The elimination half-life of Suboxen(generic name isbuprenorphine) is 20–73 hours (average is 37). Suboxen is easier to take, as you can typically get it from a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction in a 30 day supply. Also, many insurances pay for Suboxen. The downside to Suboxen is it doesn’t work as well as Methadone (it didn’t for me). They recommend Suboxen if a person is extremely motivated, is on a relatively low dose or type of opiate, such as Hydrocodone, and can be monitored. Another pro of these medications is they do not produce a high, at least at the right dose for your body, depending on your level of tolerance. I have found that over the years I have had to up my dose from 95mgs to 120mgs, but some people take as little as 10 or 20 mgs. They also are an opiate antagonist, which means they prevent your brain from getting high from opiates. This helps control the urge to use, since you know it won’t work anyway. You would have to be off it for several days to be able to get high again, and that usually gives you the time to reconsider using. The most important part of the medication, at least to me, is you don’t go through withdrawal if you use Methadone or Suboxen correctly (Methadone moreso than Suboxen because it is stronger). It allows you to learn to live a drugfree lifestyle so that when you are ready to get off permanently, you will have shed many of your addictive behavior and relationships. People often refer to the use of medication as “reduction of harm) which means that even though you are still on opiates you typically aren’t doing illegal drug buying and selling, stealing or robbing people for drugs, prostitution, and using street drugs where you don’t know the strength or what is in it. It also severely drops the risk of overdose if taken correctly. You should also know that if you are taking benzodiazipines, such as Xanax or Valium, you are usually going to be required to come off them, even if you have a prescription, because the two are a deadly mix, although some, in my opinion disreputable, clinics will allow it with a prescription. Another con: the medication alone is not going to cure your addiction. It only stabilizes your body so that you can work on other parts of your life in preparation for living drug free. You should attend NA meetings, or if you can find them MARA (Medication Assisted Recovery Anonymous) to help with stabilizing the other parts of your life. I recommend MARA because sometimes people in NA can be snarky about people who take Methadone, saying they aren’t really off drugs. In conclusion, Methadone or Suboxen are not the cure for addiction, but they can help you along your way without having to deal with the painful, and often unbearable, withdrawal. I can honestly say I would never have been able to get off without it.
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