Topic: MAT

You know what would help put an end to the debate? A protocol and procedures for a successful transition off maintenance for those patients who would prefer not to remain dependent.

Patients are often afraid to ask, but when they do, they seem to want the truth.

We’re in a drug epidemic with no South American cartels or Afghan drug lords to vilify.

One thing’s for sure: it’ll be popular, because your typical alcoholic would rather not quit if he could think of an alternative.

Addiction has been described as a chronic problem that we’ve attempted to treat as an acute illness –a big reason for the revolving door of relapse.

Either way, it’s the drugs and alcohol that wind up killing the addict — not abstinence.

Most communities provide both options for opioid patients, and lacking a methadone for alcohol or cocaine, use a more traditional abstinence-based approach for those addictions.

Informed client choice means accurate information about the likely outcome of decisions made early in treatment.

Instead of becoming inspired to turn his life around, he seems to have figured, “OK, crisis averted. Let’s go get a beer.”

Some of what patients hear is gossip and folklore, something for which the addict community is famous. But there is a wide variation in quality among OTPs.