You’ve heard the phrase methadone clinic? What does that mean? Methadone is just one of the treatment methods for opioid use disorder. The treatment method is called opioid substitution therapy.
Recovery Care clinics provide opioid substitution therapy as part of our services.
Opioid substitution therapy involves taking an opioid agonist, like methadone or suboxone, to help patients suffering from opioid addiction. Because they work the same way in your brain as opioids, they are used to prevent withdrawal in a patient and reduce cravings for opioid drugs. This is part of a treatment plan to help stabilize a patient and to reduce the harm and potential risk associated with drug use.
Treatment for a patient depends on many different things, including overall health. When you come to Recovery Care, you will participate in an intake assessment with our team. You will then meet with a physician. The physician will examine you and look to identify any complicating factors. This is to help identify what course of treatment will be most effective for you, as no two people are the same.
Not everyone understands substance use disorder. Understanding opioid substitution therapy is also difficult. This is not a program that simply replaces one drug with another. Remember, substance use disorder is an illness. Other chronic illnesses, like diabetes and heart disease, use medication to stabilize a patient so they can lead their best, healthiest lives. This is the same as opioid substitution therapy; methadone and suboxone stabilize a patient so that they can lead their best, healthiest lives.
