Help Drug Abuse

Most people associate methadone with opioid treatment, to help addicts get off heroin, for example, and ease them into recovery, free of any drugs or pharmacological intervention. By design it works, but as with anything, there are times when the use of the drug is abused.

For starters, methadone is a synthetic opioid, and beyond drug addiction treatment, methadone is used as an analgesic for treatment of various pain conditions. It is a powerful pain killer, used as a substitute for morphine, and it is less expensive. When methadone is prescribed, there is careful monitoring of the dosage and frequency of use, so patients are closely watched.

Why methadone for opioid addiction treatment? Patients are placed on a methadone program to help with the withdrawal symptoms from addiction to opiate drugs, such as heroin. Those suffering from the disease will explain that the withdrawal is worse than the actual addiction, so many avoid treatment for fear that the withdrawal will be too severe. Also, when off their opiate drug of choice, addicts have to deal with the intense cravings that go along with abstinence.

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It has been seen that drug overdoses have increased the rate of deaths either accidentally or intentionally. Poisoning is another category which has been a great cause for accidental overdoses by prescription drugs, solid or liquid drugs, illicit drugs etc. The greatest targets of this are mainly the people of age 20 to 64 mostly due to abusing medical prescriptions as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fenatanyl, methadone etc. And there is a great need to solve the problem and saving lives.

Drug overdoses occurs when people take drugs in greater doses than recommended. The higher the dose and longer its exposure in the body results in serious poisoning. Different individuals react differently to drug overdoses. And the treatment also differs from person to person based on individual needs. No two individuals react similarly and need to be dealt by professional help in such cases. It can happen to anybody of any age. Crawling children may be exposed to this danger of they happen to reach any of the drugs accidentally and consume it as they have a tendency to take every thing to mouth. They may swallow drugs due to curiosity about the medicine in hand which is consumed by one of the family members. This happens in tender age only if any of the drug is kept open and at reach accidentally.

Toddlers are in a habit to share all things. So if you detect drug overdoses in one of them, check all others kids around if present. But adolescents and adults may do it intentionally in the fits of depression or anger to harm them. It is called suicide attempt. If done frequently it shows that they underline some mental health problem. This is serious issue and doesn’t only need current safety but the person needs to visit a psychiatrist to share his or her fears and insecurities if any.

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Sometimes people who are not necessarily into illegal street drugs can be prescribed Methadone by their doctor or a hospital. This happens sometimes because they have a chronic pain condition that is so severe that lessor painkillers cannot control the pain for them. It is also the case sometimes where people will take a pain pill for their pain, but it wears off much to quickly due to the high intensity of their pain. In cases such as these, a doctor might prescribe Methadone because it tends to stick longer in the system.

This “sticky factor” is a huge part of what makes Methadone so addictive. It is really, really hard to get off Methadone once you are hooked on it. The problem is that the drug is so sticky that it tends to cling to your opiate receptors in your brain for much longer than other opiate painkillers would. This creates a very uncomfortable and very long detox process.

Keep in mind that treating chronic pain with an opiate is a bit like trying to use alcohol as an anesthetic for surgery. Consider this analogy for a while and you will start to see how painkillers are working in our brain in order to try and treat physical pain. What is actually occurring is that the actual site of the pain is not being treated at all, but instead the opiate drugs are fogging the physical brain so much that the person simply stops being concerned with any pain that their body might be in at the time. Getting to this point when a person is in intense pain means that you have to seriously medicate them to the point of being practically oblivious. Imagine using enough alcohol with a patient to properly prepare them for surgery and you have an idea of just how “out of it” a person can be on Methadone.

Continue reading ‘Avoid Opiate Addiction at All Costs’ »