THE BEST article explaining methadone controversy I have come across

I accidently came across this article while doing some research and in my opinion, it explains the methadone controversy the best I have heard so far. It comes from the CAP (Center for Addictive Problems) Quality Care. They also believe in using whatever dose necessary to treat a patientt is the best practice but I will share some of that information with you later on.

It just validates the information that Deborah has on the Medical Assisted Treatmentof America, Incorporated so I felt it was important to share it with you: http://www.capqualitycare.com/methandone-overview.html

You can find the CAP site at
http://www.capqualitycare.com/

WHY IS METHADONE MAINTENANCE SUCH A CONTROVERSIAL TREATMENT?

Common sense, personal experience and prejudice are the customary resources called upon by those finding fault with methadone maintenance treatment. The controversy is due, in part, to the apparent contradiction in the concept of treating addicts with what is erroneously regarded as an "addictive drug." While methadone can treat addiction, and chronic use can create physical dependence, methadone "addiction" is very rare. . When addicts become addicted, or when patients relapse, they do so with short acting opiates, such as heroin, morphine and oxycodone and not with methadone. Addicts may use methadone to deal with craving or withdrawal, but it is not a first choice, by any means. Because of methadone's slow onset and long duration (days) of action, it is rarely sought out by addicts or non-addicts in search of a drug "high." By the time someone seeks out methadone, he or she has already suffered the brain disease, which underlies true opioid addiction. Fortunately, 30 years of relentless, uninformed attacks on methadone maintenance have resulted in its becoming the most thoroughly scrutinized and researched substance abuse modality in history. This research is not usually sufficient to convince people who have an emotional or common sense based disrespect for the treatment.

Some who have experienced long term recovery from abstinence-based "treatment" or 12-Step fellowship are unable to comprehend just how lucky they are; they do not realize that most opioid addicts will not be so fortunate. Addiction is a disease like any other. Addicts with a less severe form of the illness or whose disease changes in severity may not need medicine; There are some diabetics whose disease responds to losing weight and others who require oral or injectable medications. The safest and most effective treatment for most opiate addicts, however, involves support and structure along with medications which eliminate cravings and protect them from overdose. Heroin and other opioid addictions can last for a lifetime for many addicts, according to a 2001 research article.

No amount of scientific study or medical expertise will convince some people of the therapeutic value of MMT: once they assign a negative moral value to the treatment, they have no further need to listen to the results of scientific research. Facts are never an answer to faith. The media tends to paint a negative picture of methadone treatment which bolsters such prejudices.

They do so in spite of decades of treatment experience and mountains of research* that prove methadone maintenance to be the safest, most effective treatment for heroin addiction that exists (Institute of Medicine (1990). Treating Drug Problems, Vol. 1). In 1997, the National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel of experts found methadone maintenance to be more effective and less dangerous than any abstinence based treatment, whether 12-Step, hospital inpatient, therapeutic community or "faith-based." More recently, data collected regarding rapidly "detoxified" patients and others treated with naltrexone (a medication which blocks any effect of opiates, guaranteeing a state of "abstinence?) showed 8 times the death rate that occurs with methadone maintained patients and nearly twice the rate occurring in untreated heroin addicts.

[size=18]Besides being safer and more effective, methadone maintenance is less intrusive, more confidential and less costly than most other "treatments." Methadone is not "just another drug of abuse." It is a medication proven to be unsurpassed in restoring neuroendoctrine balnce in addicts when compared with heroin and other short acting opiates.

For those with an open mind, methadone maintenance can be compared to the use of insulin treatment for diabetes. Most patients will need it for many years and some, for a lifetime. Counseling with addiction or diabetes to avoid substances and behaviors that are not healthy, for their condition, is fine, but when there is too much sugar in the urine of a diabetic or illicit heroin is present in the urine of an addict, it is the ethical responsibility of the physician to prescribe or increase medication which can predictably stop the damage to the patient's health caused by behaviors which do not respond to counseling and advice.

Methadone has side effects which make some patients physically uncomfortable, fatigued or otherwise dysphoric. It is not suited to every patient; no single treatment ever is. All clinical research, to date, does tell us that methadone maintenance represents the best chance for health and long life for the great majority of opioid addicts. Buprenorphine offers yet another medication assisted treatment opportunity and has not as yet attracted the negative attention which complicates methadone maintenance treatment service delivery and is available through doctors who have special licenses allowing them to prescribe it for addicts. There are advantages and disadvantages, compared with methadone. Cost and efficacy favor methadone while less possibility of accicental overdose and relatively little regulation are potential benefits of buprenorphine maintenance.

RuthAnn
Methadone; A Flicker Of Light In The Dark
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