Treatment Online

Fight Against Opiod Addiction has Another Weapon
> 1/27/2006 2:07:51 PM

This past Monday, USA Today ran an article entitled, "New drug treats the new face of addiction." Detailing the use of buprenorphine in the treatment of opiod addiction, in the form of painkillers, the article is slightly deceptive in that neither painkiller addiction nor buprenorphine is terribly new.

In fact, buprenorphine has been on the scene since the early 90s. This 1992 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association detailed the early evidence of buprenorphine's efficacy in treating opiod dependence in comparison to methadone, which was introduced in the U.S. in 1947. Likewise, morphine, a powerful painkiller has been a source of addiction since the 19th century.

It was not until recently though that buprenorphine has become commercially available. In the form of Subutex and Suboxone, buprenorphine can be prescribed by a doctor, which prevents addicts from needing to go to a methadone clinic for treatment.

Continued research has proven buprenorphine's use. One 2005 study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry showed that buprenorphine was effective in treating adolescents. Another from the same year, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, confirmed again that for particularly difficult cases methadone still proves the more effective treatment.

As the USA Today article makes clear through anecdote, buprenorphine provides another option for the treatment of opiod addiction. If you or someone that you know may be a candidate for treatment utilizing buprenorphine, talk to your doctor.

As the article makes clear, the rewards for those that qualify for treatment using buprenorphine can be great:
"There are just not that many things you do that so dramatically change peoples' lives," says Yale's Sullivan, who has treated David Alexander and Nick Carrano. "They recoup their lives, their families, their jobs, their self-esteem."

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