For heroin addiction, there are different treatments available. If heroin abuse is identified early then treatment will be more effective. Depending on individuals, the treatment will change. But avoiding drug is better than treatment after using drug.
Methadone programs:
For more than 30 years effectively and safely, this treatment is being used to treat opioid addiction. This treatment is not sedating or intoxicating and ordinary activities are not interfered by the effects of this treatment like driving a car.
Methadone enables patients to stop using heroin and it will help to return to more stable and productive lives when this program is combined with behavioral therapies or counseling and other supportive services.
LAAM and other medications:
LAAM is like methadone and it is synthetic opiate which can be used to treat heroin addiction. If drug is taken orally then effects of heroin can be blocked by LAAM for up to 72 hours with minimal side effects.
Use of LAAM was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1993 for treating patients who are addicted to heroin. Dosing is permitted by it’s long duration of action just three per week. By this, need for daily dosing can be eliminated and you can take home doses on weekends.
Behavioral Therapy:
Both pharmacologic and behavioral treatments are extremely useful but if both types of treatments are integrated then it will have most effective approach.
Important thing is best treatment approach should match to particular needs of the patient. Particular promise, as treatments is shown by different new behavioral therapies like Cognitive-behavioral interventions, contingency management therapy for heroin addiction. A voucher-based system is used by contingency management therapy, where points are earned by patients based on negative drug tests, those points can be exchanged for items which encourage healthy living.
To help modify the patient’s thinking, behaviors, expectancies, cognitive-behavioral interventions are designed, to increase skills in coping with different life stressors.
