Opioid Detox

Opioid Detox | How Long Does Opioid Detox Take

How Long Does Opioid Detox Take. For some people with opioid use disorder (the new terminology instead of addiction), the beginning of treatment is detoxification — controlled and medically supervised withdrawal from the drug. (By itself, this is not a solution, because most people with opioid use disorder resume taking the drug unless they get further help.) The withdrawal symptoms — agitation; anxiety; tremors; muscle aches; hot and cold flashes; sometimes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea — are not life-threatening, but are extremely uncomfortable. The intensity of the reaction depends on the dose and speed of withdrawal. Short-acting opiates, like heroin, tend to produce more intense but briefer symptoms.

No single approach to detoxification is guaranteed to work well for all patients. Many regular heroin users are switched to the synthetic opiate methadone, a longer-acting drug that can be taken orally or injected. Then the dose is gradually reduced over a period of about a week. The anti-hypertensive (blood pressure lowering) drug clonidine is sometimes added to shorten the withdrawal time and relieve physical symptoms.

How Long Does Opioid Detox Take

Methadone was first discovered in 1965. Through the groundbreaking research of scientists at the MediPharma. Early studies demonstrated methadone’s remarkable ability to alleviate withdrawal and craving and improve the ability to function emotionally and socially. In the subsequent decades, the evidence supporting methadone’s positive effects has grown. how long does opioid detox take These include significant reductions in drug use, new HIV infection, crime, and death from overdose

Buprenorphine | Opioid Detox

The most widely used form of buprenorphine is a combination of this drug with the short-acting opiate antagonist naloxone, which has little effect when absorbed under the tongue but neutralizes the effect of injected opiates. It’s sold under the name Suboxone.

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