Medication Assisted Treatment
There are many pathways to addiction recovery. One of those pathways is Medication Assisted Recovery – the use of medication, as prescribed and overseen by a physician, to support recovery from a substance use disorder. We know that people who suffer from the disease of addiction need each other to recover. Some view the use of a medication to abstain from a drug as “just substituting one drug for another.” However, decades of research and treatment experience show that it is not.
What is Medication Assisted Recovery?
The phrase “Medication Assisted Recovery” is a practical, accurate, and non-stigmatizing way to describe a pathway to recovery made possible by physician-prescribed and monitored medication, along with other recovery supports, e.g., counseling and peer support. Although no medications cure dependence on drugs or alcohol, some do play a significant and lifesaving role in helping people begin and sustain recover.
Many treatment programs and primary care physicians use medications as an important tool in the treatment of addiction, for purposes such as:
- To detoxify a person or prevent withdrawal
- To reduce the frequency and intensity of cravings
- To block the experience of feeling “high” (intoxication)
- To provide a shield against impulsive use
- To treat or control symptoms of a medial or mental disorder, that if left untreated could lead to relapse
Co-occurring Disorders
Many people with substance use disorders also have problems such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Treating co-occurring (substance use and mental health) disorders together increases the chances of long-term recovery. Mental health care often and appropriately includes the use of medications, such as antidepressants.
Alcohol Dependence
Excessive long-term use of alcohol can actually disrupt the balance of the brain’s chemistry. It is believed that this change is linked to alcohol dependence. Alcoholism is not based on poor morals or a character flaw, but on how alcohol interacts with certain physical and mental conditions, functions, and processes within the human body.
About Antabuse
Antabuse (disulfiram) is a medication that causes a bad reaction if people drink alcohol while taking it. Because people know the medication will make them very ill if they drink alcohol, it helps them not to drink.
The reaction is flushing, nausea, vomiting, and anxiety. Even small quantities of alcohol, such as from food sauces and cough medications, may induce some of these symptoms.
Used alone, without proper motivation and without supportive therapy, Antabuse is not a cure for alcoholism, and it is unlikely that it will have more than a brief effect on the drinking pattern of the chronic alcoholic unless the patient is receiving comprehensive care.
How it works
Antabuse is nontoxic, but it alters the metabolism of alcohol in the body by increasing the concentration of acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is the first break-down product of alcohol, as it is metabolized by the body. This increased concentration makes it impossible for one who is taking Antabuse to drink without experiencing severe discomfort.
About Campral
Campral (acamprosate calcium) is a medication that helps people stay alcohol-free in combination with counseling or support groups, once they have stopped drinking. Campral helps reduce the emotional discomfort and physical distress (e.g., sweating anxiety, sleep disturbances) associated with staying alcohol-free.
About Vivitrol and Revea
Naltrexone (ReVia or Vivitrol) is a medication that reduces the craving for alcohol, and also reduces the pleasurable effects of alcohol. This can help keep people who drink a small amount of alcohol from drinking more of it.
Programs also sometimes use naltrexone to treat heroin or other opioid dependence because it blocks the drug’s effect. It is important for people who use opiates to go through Detox first, so they are opiate free before starting to take naltrexone.
Opioid Dependence
Typically, the changes that cause opioid dependence will not correct themselves right away, even though the opioid use has stopped. In fact, these changes can trigger cravings months and even years after a patient has stopped using opioids. Consequently, overcoming opioid dependence is not simply a matter of eliminating narcotic drugs from the body.
Buprenorphine (Suboxone) helps suppress withdrawal from prescription pain medications, heroin or similar opioids. It helps decrease cravings for and also reduces the effects of other opioids.
Suboxone- How it works
Buprenorphine is a narcotic that blocks other opioids from attaching to receptors in the brain. Buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist. This means that, although buprenorphine is an opioid, and therefore can produce typical opioid agonist effects and side effects such as euphoria and respiratory depression, its maximum effects are less than those of full agonists like heroin and methadone. At low doses, buprenorphine produces enough agonist effect to enable opioid-dependent individuals to stop misusing opioids without experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
Read Dr. Seikel’s Medication Assisted Recovery and Medication Assisted Recovery for Alcohol
Get Medication Assisted Treatment answers at our Frequently Asked Questions.
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How Counseling & Medication Work Together
If your first thought is that you can go it alone, consider this: opioid cravings can occur months and even years after your last use.
Contact Dr. Seikel’s office to get treatment for you or your loved one.
View Medication assisted treatment intake forms and arrive to your appointment prepared.