Finding Purpose in Medication Assisted Treatment

Some people are hesitant about getting in an opioid treatment program (commonly known as methadone clinics) because they believe that they are trading one substance use disorder for another.  When people are going into treatment, they are being supervised by professionals that make sure a person is taking it the right way and combining the medication with therapy to help the individual achieve their change goals.  The purpose of using this medication (methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone) is to counteract the drug a person had been using, such as heroin or opioid pain pills to down-regulate receptors. Getting to a stable medication level alone is not enough for people to be able to change their way of living. This is where the combination of medication and therapy, which is the gold standard for the treatment of opioid use disorder, comes into focus at the Morse Clinics. There is ample evidence that people who remain abstinent for at least a year and then have their maintenance medication tapered slowly over time are able to transition from treatment to the community. A high percentage of these individuals are not in treatment again in the next three to five years if at all. The link below helps to explore some frequently asked questions about MAT in the 21st century.

http://methadoneclinic.com/methadone-frequently-asked-questions/