Heroin Treatment: Methadone Treatment

Heroin addiction treatment with methadone is relatively safe under physician care and has been used for the past 30 years. Treatment for heroin addiction goes far back in the heroin treatment history timeline many centuries. Heroin releases dopamine which then occupies the opioid receptors in the brain. The addict constantly needs to have these receptors filled or they suffer withdrawal symptoms. Methadone also occupies these receptors but stabilizes the patient so that the behaviors associated with heroin do not occur.

The effect of the methadone will last between 24 and 36 hours unlike heroin which is only 4 to 12 hours. This allows the methadone to be taken orally once a day. Methadone will also block any opiate used by the patient so they cannot feel the euphoric rush associated with heroin. Because methadone does not produce any euphoric feelings or make the patient drowsy it is safe for the patient to go about their daily lives working and driving.

Ultimately the patient will remain opiate dependant on the methadone. Withdrawal from methadone takes a much longer time, and because of this the patient can be maintained many years (Methadone Maintenance Treatment – MMT) without the harsh side effects.

Methadone maintenance treatment is an individualized personal treatment that is dispensed with a prescription through the care of a physician in clinical methadone treatment centers. It is estimated that 20 percent of the heroin addicts are on a methadone maintenance treatment program. Federal regulations restrict the use and availability of methadone with strict protocols; in addition, most States closely monitor the clinics and the distribution of prescriptions. However in 1999 Department of Health and Human Services released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making for the use of methadone (NPRM). This gives more flexibility of the patient’s clinical physician a little more freedom to make choices in the treatment of their patients.

As time goes on more studies and advances are being made, Heroin addiction treatment with methadone is now not the only method used for treatment of opiate addicted patients there is heroin addiction treatment with suboxone that has emerged just recently as a few years. You may also want to take a look at the new Suboxone Treatment now available in the USA.