Traditional opiate addiction treatment helps only a few addicts, and only after severe side effects. Even with successful treatment, opiate addiction is marked by multiple relapses. Methadone tablet treatment is a significant advance over traditional methods and allows for a new approach to treatment: Successful treatment with reliable remission of active addiction, with Suboxone.
Methadone tablet price in pakistan is a new drug for opiate addiction that will cause a sea change in addiction treatment. Doctors who now prescribe suboxone are aware of the benefits of the drug, and news of the drug has reached ‘the street’ to such an extent that opiate addicts often call addicts and ask for the drug on their behalf. Word of mouth spread the news about suboxone without the benefit (or need) of TV commercials. The traditional approach to drug addiction treatment treats all substances as essentially the same. Yes, the addict enters into a ‘love relationship’ with the object, but the object’s sister, brother, aunt, or uncle can easily step in and take the effect of the drug of choice in a process called cross addiction. This is one reason traditional medicine requires mindfulness from ALL things, but also a more complex reason. The addict, over time, becomes more aware of his feelings, comfort level, and anxiety. The addict is constantly ‘checking in’ somatically, asking, ‘Am I going high? Or ‘am I (oh no!) drowning? Each sweat bead can represent the pain associated with use. All the pain is a new potential excuse. The addict finds comfort in the ‘4 hour schedule’; the internal clock becomes paramount, and ultimately the only one that truly matters. Sobriety and recovery require the addict to learn to take life in stride, and to let go of symptom and medication concerns. Meditation will eliminate the learned worry of symptoms over time-sometimes a great deal of time. As the obsession fades, the addict takes steps to avoid relapse. But when the addict takes a new mind-altering substance, even something like nonalcoholic diphenhydramine, the old perspective of emotions and symptoms returns. Many addicts recognize the ‘alcoholic’ sobriety and the ‘psychological’ sobriety; a drug that causes the addict to subconsciously refocus on the symptoms can cause the addict’s memory to re-emerge. And when the addict returns, it can be very difficult to get back to the idea of sobriety.
Certainly the need for complete sobriety prevents some addicts from seeking help, and there are other addicts who do seek help but simply cannot maintain sobriety for everything despite extensive treatment. To increase the popularity and effectiveness of addiction treatment, alternative treatment models have emerged, including an approach known as ‘harm reduction’. The harm reduction approach helps the smoker find ways to reduce intake and thus reduce the harm associated with heavy or unavoidable use. With the introduction of ‘drink counts’ and other behaviors, harm reduction and cognitive therapy are linked. Regarding the various traditional treatment strategies, there are patients who will do better with one strategy than another, and there are patients who will benefit from either strategy. Specifically, some people work or drink in an almost casual manner—each drinking session is characterized by drinking to complete oblivion. I want to give these people full memory, because the memory changes that have occurred in therapy will likely fade with the first drink. On the other hand, a patient with a 20-year history of smoking habit who is dealing with his or her first DUI may be a good candidate for a harm reduction intervention. As such, alcohol is an integral part of an addict’s personality, and the idea of complete sobriety after one offense is going to be a hard sell. However, if the patient is given specific instructions to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed, he or she may delay the most important symptoms of alcohol consumption.
My experience with methadone tablets in pakistan makes me wonder if we are on the brink of an entirely new approach to opiate addiction, and back to other addictions as well.