Methadone Addiction

Is drug addiction is a disease, not a choice? Or it is a choice and not a disease? Drug Addiction has become a serious issue in society today, with an increase in controversy leading towards the topic of whether drug addiction is a disease or a choice. Addiction and disease are two different things and understanding them is very important when it comes to drugs and how it affects the mind and body. Several people tend to jump the gun and think that drug addiction is a disease, when in fact it is a choice. Some scientists believe that that drug addiction is a disease and to an extent that it makes people powerless to control its prevalence, on the other hand some scientists believe that addiction is a choice and that people have

When a woman uses heroin while pregnant, her baby is at risk for many challenging effects that will ultimately follow him or her as they grow into an adult. As heroin enters a mother’s system, the drug crosses into the child through the placenta (“Heroin Addiction”, n.d.). While a baby is in utero, a mother’s substance abuse can cause a fetus to grow at a slower rate, lead to the rupturing of the membranes surrounding the baby that results in premature labor, and cause a possible stillbirth, which means the fetus dies in the womb (“An Overview of Heroin”, n.d.). Substance abuse can also cause the placenta to separate from the uterine wall leading to dangerous heavy bleeding, which is a threat to both mother and child (“Heroin and Pregnancy,” 2015). Along with possible placenta abruption, the use of heroin can lead to the intrauterine passage of meconium (“Opioid Abuse,” 2012). After labor and delivery, the effects

Currently in Ontario there are approximately 30,000 people, between the ages of 15 and 49, using illicit opioids on a regular basis. (Hart 2007) Opioid use is a costly and dangerous social problem and is the fastest growing drug problem in the country. The good news is that there is a treatment that has been proven by research and evidence to be effective. Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) is a long term treatment program used to treat opioid dependence and addiction.(Source) MMT works by preventing withdrawal symptoms in opiate users. It also prevents the euphoria the user is seeking from other opiates. MMT uses the drug of Methadone to do this. Methadone is a synthetic opioid commonly used to treat opioid dependence.(Source)

Methadone maintenance therapy is the primary go to source for addicts looking to quit the street drug, heroin. Methadone on it's own has its own number of controversies within society. However add on the fact that a number of patients that attend the meth clinic that is pregnant, well this can add additional controversy and raise ethical implications as well. Ultimately the child is better off when not being subjected to harmful substances such as drugs an alcohol. However when given the choice of heroin or methadone, we will examine what the benefits of methadone maintenance therapy can provide the mother, and the fetus. Methadone clinics provide a safe form of the drug with clean needles which helps cut the spread of HIV/AIDS among the population. While the client is at the clinic it is a good time to reach out and provide the future mother with resources that may help her once her child is born. Clinicians can also take advantage of this meeting time to reach out to the mother and inform her on the benefits of attending a treatment facility to help achieve sobriety.

America has a major problem with opioid addicts, and many facilities are helping the addicts by providing safer options to taking the drugs their bodies crave. Methadone clinics are places where people addicted to opioids can receive medicine-based therapy. Opioid use, drugs such as heroin, morphine, and prescribed painkillers, has increased in the US with all age groups and incomes. People become addicted to these drugs when they are prescribed, recreationally used with other addicts, or they are born addicted. Many health institutions are addressing this issue with an estimated 2.1 million people in the United States suffering from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers in 2012 and an estimated 467,000 addicted

Not only is the user reducing their risks of overdose with heroin and methadone, they are also reducing their use of other substances. This allows the user to become more of a functioning member of society, due to their decreased activities with other substances.

By discontinuing abuse, addicts can reduce their risks for overdose. In addition, the possibility of transmitting and acquiring diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B or C, bacterial infections, endocarditis, soft tissue infections, thrombophlebitis, tuberculosis, and STDs is significantly reduced (“Methadone Maintenance Treatment”). Most importantly, patients’ mortality rates are reduced considerably (“Methadone Maintenance Treatment”).

Methadone is a high risk for abuse. It work in the brain to change how your body feels and how it responds to pain. If one take Methadone, they will start to vomit, shaking, diarrhea, and failure to gain any weight. If someone is not using this drug correctly they will have crucial consequences. It is advised that, methadone should only be use the correct way. If you brain gets addicted to methadone and one decides to stop taking it for awhile. One may suffer from mood swings, particularly because the supply of the drug gets

I agree that the withdrawal process makes opioid addiction debilitating. It takes time for the bodies of addicts to adjust when the opiods are not in their system. During withdrawal addicts experience many negative symptoms varing in severity. A form of treatment to reduce withdrawal symptoms and helping with detox is methadone which is also an opiod. When addicts are first put on methadone they take the instructed dosage, then over time the dosage slowly decreases. Methadone decreases the cravings of opioids and helps in maintaining to be free from other substances. Although I do not completly agree with taking medication to stop drug addiction, methadone has shown to be effective in treating drug addiction.

During the last seven months whilst working at a men’s shelter (Cornerstone Community Association, in the heart of Oshawa, which some may say is the drug capital of the Durham Region) many of the shelter guests (men who stay in the shelter) have disclosed being on the methadone maintenance program, stating as a result of being addicted to opioid drugs. I have chosen to write about this psychoactive drug because I want to explore, become more knowledgeable and more confident when talking about this complex drug.

Methadone clinics can be another solution to combat the ever growing heroin epidemic. Methadone is very similar to heroin as it provides the same high, but it blocks the brains reward receptors that are effected by heroin. This allows the user to detox slowly without little withdrawal symptoms that accompany it, rather than a dreadful recovery. The goal is to relieve heorin addict’s cravings and desire for heroin in a safe, legal manner. Addicts are only able to attain Methadone and have use of the clinics by having a prescription. Methadone has been around and proven to be affective since the 1960s, but only recently have clinics come into practice. There has been a rise of Methadone clinics popping up in neighborhoods where there are high

Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disorder which produces compulsive drug seeking and use. The abuse of drugs leads to changes in the function and structure of the brain. Consuming chemical substances to achieve pleasure or euphoria The most commonly abused classes of prescription drugs according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse include opioids used for chronic pain; central nervous system (CNS) depressants used in anxiety and sleep disorder treatments; and stimulants, such as amphetamine among others, utilized to treat attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy.[4]

The impact of heroin on a pregnant women is two fold it was noted in this study that that use of heroin decreased from the first trimester until three months after the birth of their baby as demonstrated by this graph.

Addiction is defined as the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance.In 2009, 23.5 million people 12 or older suffer from drug addiction disorder, also known as substance abuse disorder. Drugs affect your brain, and not only do they hurt you, they can hurt the people around you.

The topic that caught my attention when I was reading my choices was “Drug Addiction”. Drug addiction is something that should not be taken lightly by anyone who has a family member or friend with this issue. We often wonder how and what make people turn into being a drug addict. “Drug addiction is rooted in long-term adaptations within the brain that promotes escalating drug use, difficulty quitting, and relapse—all despite the awareness of negative consequences.” With that being said I have always wondered what keep a person going back to their addiction and why can’t they quit. When I read the article and it mention how drug addiction is rooted a light bulb clicked in my head. When something is rooted inside of you