Effects Of Heroin And Its Addiction Treatment
Heroin is a highly addictive drug, regular use of which for just a week can result in a deep addiction and a physical dependence. Heroin creates an impact as soon as it enters the body and produces an instantaneous burst of euphoria in the individual. This is the reason for the high demand in heroin and its rapid spread across the globe.
The chronic use of this drug leads to many physical alterations in the brain of the user and the frequency of the cravings increases with the passage of time. The individual on further use experiences intensively painful symptoms of withdrawal or physical dependence. Apart from this heroin can cause the body to develop tolerance, which ultimately ends up in the individual taking increasingly heavier doses of the drug to get the required getting addicted to heroin is easier but quitting it is another matter altogether.
Addiction to heroin is a fatal disease in itself. Withdrawal symptoms can start occurring in a person in just half an hour passes of the last use. These symptoms can increase in the severity after two or three days. Various symptoms of heroin withdrawal are nausea, headache, yawning, muscular pains, vomiting, runny nose, depression, diarrhea, restlessness, cramps in the stomach, excessive sweating and anxiety. These symptoms can be very unpleasant and irritating. There are medicines that can diminish the intensity of these withdrawal symptoms. Some medicines are also helpful in eliminating them on a short-term basis.
Treatment for heroin addiction
Heroin addiction treatment involves medication options that are based on the severity of the addiction of the patient. An opiate replacement medication (methadone or suboxone) is given to the patients so that they start craving lesser and lesser. Another option for the treatment is medical detox and psychosocial therapies. These behavioral therapies in combination with the medication benefit the heroin addicts. In addition, there are ‘12-step support groups that maintain anonymity and help each other in motivating and staying abstinent from this deadly drug.
Methadone treatment is an opiate substitution therapy. It allows a patient to quit heroin and instead, use methadone. It is a legal opiate that allows the user to be functional and lead a normal life in mainstream society. It also helps in eliminating the heroin withdrawal symptoms because opiate is still being supplied to the brain.
Buprenorphine works much like methadone as in a substitute to opiate in the brains of the patients. Heroin addiction treatment by giving this medicine relieves the patient from withdrawal symptoms. Buprenorphine is approved from FDA for the treatment and is allowed to be sold as Subutex or Suboxone. Naloxene, which is contained in buprenorphine makes the abuse of heroin difficult in the body. This medicine is milder than methadone and can be prescribed to the patients for several months at a stretch.
Naltrexone is also used for the heroin addiction treatment. Using heroin after taking this medicine does not cause the manifestation of any “high” in the brains of the users. As long as the user takes these medicines, abstinence is maintained from Heroin.
In conjunction with the various medicines, various behavioral therapies are also used to treat the patients. Contingency management or cognitive behavioral theories have shown great results in helping heroin addicts. Support groups and attending meetings help in a constant motivation of the addicts to maintain their newly achieved sobriety.
