Medications Used to Treat Addiction

HOW ARE OPIOIDS USED TO TREAT ADDICTION?

Patients who choose to use Medication Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction have a choice of medications. Most kinds of MAT involve the use of an “opioid agonist.” An opioid agonist binds to the same receptors in the brain that were activated by the drug of abuse, but in a safer and more controlled manner. These medications can reduce the symptoms of withdrawal and reduce cravings, allowing for a more gradual, controlled recovery process and reducing the risk of relapse.

Opioid drugs are not only illicit drugs of addiction. Opioid medications have many legitimate uses, including for the treatment of addiction.

There are many different types of opioids, from prescription pain medications to heroin to drugs used to treat addiction. However, all opioid drugs act in similar ways in the body. These similarities allow for the possibility of “cross-tolerance.” Treatment with buprenorphine takes advantage of these similarities among opioids to use safer, more controlled doses of a prescription opioid to “replace” the opioid on which a person was physically dependent. This helps to block withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings for illicit drugs, which both help reduce the risk for relapse.

Sometimes patients and their families or friends wonder why doctors use drugs like buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction, since these medications are in the same family as heroin and other prescription narcotics.  However, physician-prescribed buprenorphine is not just “substituting” one addiction for another. Addiction treatment uses longer-acting and safer medications to help overcome more dangerous opioid addictions.

Many studies have shown that maintenance treatment with long-acting opioids like buprenorphine helps keep patients healthier, reduces criminal activity, and helps prevent drug-related diseases like HIV/AIDs and Hepatitis.