Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) in Rhode Island: Suboxone, Vivitrol, and Methadone Explained
Repeated drug use floods your brain with dopamine, which fries its natural reward center. If you continue taking these substances for elevated dopamine levels, the brain starts producing less of its own and depends entirely on external sources.
Eventually, your craving for that particular substance keeps growing stronger, and avoiding it feels impossible. Since this is literally chemical damage to the brain, we need more powerful and safer chemicals to cancel that out. Hence, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) is a crucial part of treating addiction.
This article explains how important MAT is for addiction rehab and a few important medicines used for this purpose. Keep reading to learn more.
Benefits of Medication-Assisted Treatment
You might think replacing addictive substances with medicines will make you dependent on the latter, but it’s not the case. The experts introduce such controlled doses of these medicines that their sole purpose is to slowly reduce your dependence and not replace it. According to the American Addiction Centers, here are the reasons that make MAT important for addiction treatment:
Better Treatment Retention
Starting substance abuse treatment is one thing and going through with it is another. The detox stages are often so painful that people drop out of treatment and start using drugs again. For example, if someone is expected to get over their heroin addiction based on their willpower and behavioral therapies, they’ll likely fail. That’s because these evil chemicals make one so dependent that surviving without them is impossible.
Therefore, doctors prescribe FDA-approved medicines during rehab, as they help maintain certain chemical levels in your brain and body. Also, when treatment feels less exhausting, you can focus on therapies and self-improvement to completely overcome addiction. Experts agree that people on MAT are more likely to complete treatment programs compared to those who rely on willpower alone.
Improved Survival Rates
Overdose is one of the biggest risks in addiction, especially during relapse. Because a patient has lived without drugs for a few days or weeks, they often take more than the safe levels when they regain access to them. But when MAT is a regular part of the plan, it lowers this risk.
Stabilizing medications reduce the intensity of cravings to make relapse less likely and less dangerous in case it does happen. Multiple observations confirm that MAT reduces overdose deaths because it keeps the patient stabilized.
Incredible Medicines Used in MAT
Medication-assisted treatment in Rhode Island is nothing less than a life-saving approach because it makes rehab actually doable. Put simply, when you ask a substance abuser to quit, they don’t commit because the idea of it feels painful. But when potent medicines are always there, one can go through these difficult stages.
And while many meds are used for addiction treatment, here are the ones mostly prescribed in Rhode Island:
Suboxone
Suboxone is arguably the most heard name when it comes to addiction treatment because of how often it’s prescribed. This med basically combines buprenorphine and naloxone, each for a separate role.
Put simply, buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist, so it activates opioid receptors enough to ease your withdrawal and cravings without producing the same high as full opioids. At the same time, the naloxone part of Suboxone stays inactive unless the medication is misused by injection. If that happens, it triggers withdrawal and discourages tampering.
You can take this medicine as a dissolvable tablet or film, once daily at home under a doctor’s guidance. Also, this one doesn’t require inpatient supervision and offers more flexibility than some other ones used during addiction treatment.
Notably, Suboxone is used as an early-stage treatment and helps people stabilize soon after they stop using opioids. This way, they don’t need a lengthy detox period first and can incorporate other rehab modules soon after.
Vivitrol
Vivitrol is actually the brand name for extended-release naltrexone, an opioid antagonist. And unlike buprenorphine, it doesn’t activate opioid receptors. Instead, it blocks them completely, so opioids have no effect if someone relapses and eventually removes the reward that reinforces continued drug use.
The addiction center will likely give you vivitrol as a monthly injection, so it naturally suits people who struggle with daily medication routines. However, there is often a key requirement for this one to be administered: a person must be fully opioid-free for 7-14 days before starting it. That’s because taking it too early can trigger a severe withdrawal, so doctors usually introduce it after detox, not during it.
Methadone
Methadone is a full opioid agonist. Put simply, it activates opioid receptors more completely than buprenorphine, so it’s effective at controlling severe withdrawal and cravings. If someone has long-term or high-level opioid dependence, Methadone works well. It’s also sometimes the only medication strong enough to hold back the intensity of years of heavy drug use.
It’s worth mentioning that methadone must be dispensed daily through a certified opioid treatment program, at least initially, to ensure medical supervision. If one is prescribed this medication, they typically visit the clinic each morning to receive their dose. And as treatment progresses, some patients earn take-home doses, but that strictly depends on clinic policy.
Methadone also has one of the longest track records among MAT medications, with decades of clinical use dating back to the 1960s. But since it carries a higher risk of misuse and requires careful dosing, it stays under tighter regulatory control than other options.
Treatment Keeps Getting Better
The advancements in drug addiction treatment are applaudable. Treatment centers and the broader healthcare sector in the country keep making sobriety achievable and practical. For example, rehab used to be a scary and restrictive place that people feared. But today, many flexible forms exist that allow you to start treatment without isolating yourself. If you also want to leave these bad habits behind, reach out to Rhode Island Addiction Treatment Centers, and you’ll surely find hope.