Heroin Withdrawal Promising New Treatments

Heroin Withdrawals and New Medicines that are being studied may soon come to the market. Many young school children are becoming addicted to heroin with alarming amounts of overdoses and deaths. This may be the reason for an ever increasing interest in drug companies to study medications that can remove the withdrawl effects of the heroin so these young kids can get off of the “Dope”. Until recently there have not been too many options for those who were “Hooked” on heroin. Mainly, Methadone Treatment has been the preferred way to treat heroin withdrawls. However, over the past few years there have been new treatments and medications that have shown great promise and hope for those hooked on heroin with more studies still in trials. One such study shows one Promising New Treatment where the patient receives one injection that lasts 6 weeks and will experience no heroin withdrawls.

Heroin addiction suboxone treatment, another promising new treatment, which contains Buprenorphine and Naloxone has been a very popular new medicine used for the treatment of heroin withdrawls. It has proven to be very effective and patients can be off of heroin within a few weeks without the withdrawl effects associated with stopping heroin abuse. Some highlights of Suboxone are: it does not need to be dispensed at a facility approved by the government such as Methadone, it is not as tightly regulated like methadone, it can be prescribed by a physician, it has little abuse potential, and does not cause overdose if it is abused. Naloxone is the ingredient that prevents a patient from trying to abuse the medicine by causing heavy withdrawl effects if the drug is injected. Buprenorphine is the ingredient that is a partial opiate used as a painkiller but can also remove any withdrawls caused by heroin. Because it is a partial opiate if too much is taken it cannot cause overdose. This leads to less stringent regulation of the medicine and can be taken home by the patient, unlike methadone which must be dispensed daily at the methadone clinic. Because of less stringent regulations patients who do not have access to methadone clinics, or have to travel very far to get to a clinic daily, can now simply go to a physician and take the Suboxone home.

Other studies are showing promise in the treatment of heroin withdrawls such as one study where the patient receives one injection of Buprenorphine which lasts up to six weeks. Once the injection is given the patient experiences no withdrawls and becomes free of the heroin. Researchers at Johns Hopkins published the study where five opiate dependent volunteers received a single injection of 58 mg of Buprenorphine and were assessed for four weeks for any signs of opiate withdrawal. This was done first residentially then as outpatient. None of the patients required any additional medication for withdrawal relief. Heroin withdrawal has definitely some very promising new treatments coming in the near future.

See also:

Heroin Addiction Aftercare Programs