Upon hearing the word methadone, you may initially be inclined to think it is a help, rather than harm. While it was used to aid in the rehabilitation of narcotics addicts, it quickly created its own need: a need for methadone addiction treatment.
Those seeking treatment for opiate addiction are often put on methadone through a maintenance program. Sadly, however, this often results in the sneaking and sale of this drug on the street – further enhancing the problem.
The Lakehouse Recovery Center doesn’t want to see individuals trapped in the vicious cycle of addiction and withdrawal. By creating a comfortable, welcoming facility and individual treatment options, we present you with the best chance of reaching sobriety.
What Happened to Methadone Treatment?
Methadone is a synthetic narcotic which has effects that are similar to morphine. Originating in Germany, its popular use began in clinics after World War II. In its creation, it was legally able to reduce cravings for opiates.
In fact, it suppresses the cravings for a period of 24 to 36 hours. However, as it was frequently prescribed, doctors and substance abuse professionals began discovering that individuals were becoming dependent on the drug and seeking help to get off of it.
Here is where today’s crisis unfolds: this drug has recently become a popular painkiller to prescribe among physicians. Chronic pain that doesn’t seem to respond to weaker pain medication usually reacts to the power of methadone.
After extended use, it is too difficult to stop taking the pills. When they do, they experience terrible symptoms, such as nausea, irritability, fever, aches and pains, stomach cramps, sneezing, and tremors.
Patients suffer physically and emotionally from long-term use of drugs, and find themselves tethered to their clinics and unable to travel or live their lives fully. There’s little point in replacing one dependency with another, and many people who use it are unhappy that they rely on one drug to keep them from being dependent on another. In fact, it may be more addictive than many drugs it helps to treat.
Our Approach to Methadone Addiction Treatment
After stabilizing an individual at the Lakehouse, their dose can gradually decrease. The physician in charge of the clinic observes the reactions of the individual and keeps the rate of decrease at a level that is comfortable for the client.
It is very easy to fall into a pattern of attending a methadone treatment maintenance program on a prescribed routine and obtaining a dose on a set schedule based upon federal regulations and end up needing methadone addiction treatment as well.
Based upon the rules set by the federal government, the following clinical attendance schedule is required by methadone treatment patients:
- First 90 days: one take-home dose per week
- Second 90 days: two take-home doses per week
- Third 90 days: three take-home doses per week
- Fourth 90 days: 6 days’ supply of take-home doses per week
- After one year of continuous maintenance: two weeks’ supply of take-home doses
- After two years of continuous treatment: one month’s supply of take-home doses.
- Monthly visits to the clinic are still a requirement
(Individual states may impose additional requirements if they so desire.)
What About Take-Home Doses?
Take-home doses refer to medication that a patient takes unsupervised. Any patient receives one single take-home dose for a day when the clinic is not open which includes Sundays, as well as state and federal holidays. This is in an effort to prevent addiction to the drug and the necessity for methadone addiction treatment. The criteria used by the medical director are the following based upon federal regulations:
- Regular clinical attendance.
- Absence of recent drug and alcohol abuse (through urine testing).
- Absence of recent criminal activity.
- Patient’s ability to safely store take-home medication.
- Absence of behavioral problems at the clinic.
- Stable home environment and social relationships.
- The appropriate length of time in a methadone treatment program.
- Assurance that benefits of decreased attendance outweigh possible risks of diversion.
For those individuals who desire to become totally free of chemical dependency and are tired of the need to ingest a dose of this drug each and every day – methadone addiction treatment is a solution to your problem!
Ready for Change?
The Lakehouse Recovery Center offers a methadone addiction treatment program designed to help you safely and effectively end your dependence upon this drug without transferring to an addiction or craving for another form of narcotic – and without interfering with your career or education!
If you are ready to change your life and be free from your addiction, contact us today!