USA TODAY: …[Kimberly] Bussey managed to quit long term, however, only after attending a six-month, residential rehab program in 2008. Later, she began taking a medication called buprenorphine, also sold under the brand name Suboxone. Like methadone, buprenorphine eases withdrawal symptoms, decreases drug cravings and dramatically cuts the risk of relapse in people addicted to opiates, a class of drugs that includes heroin and morphine-like pain killers such as Vicodin and Oxycontin.
Opiate addicts who are given such “medication-assisted treatment” cut their risk of death from all causes – from overdoses to car accidents – in half, said Melinda Campopiano, medical officer at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.The medications also halve a person’s risk of becoming infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS…
The medications work by blocking or partly blocking the effects of opiates, preventing patients from getting high if they use drugs, said Emily Feinstein, director of health law and policy at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York… (more)
