People
who become dependent on a substance of abuse, whatever that substance
of abuse may be, find it especially hard to quit because their brains
have undergone changes to account for the presence of that substance
in the body. Essentially, this is a natural process that occurs
because the brain is in a constant state of trying to balance itself
out.
When
an individual’s brain gets to this state, normal psychotherapy
modalities for treating the addiction can become less effective. This
is because the patient is no longer dealing with patterns of abuse
but rather a physiological change that drives that abuse. In such
cases, medication is often deemed necessary, and is used in
combination with psychotherapy sessions.
Buprenorphine
A
synthetic opioid medication, buprenorphine attaches to a section of
same neuroreceptors that opiate drugs, such as heroin and morphine,
bind to. These keep such drugs from attaching to those same
neuroreceptors and causing a high.
Buprenorphine
is often administered as Suboxone, which is a combination of
buprenorphine and naloxone. This combination prevents Suboxone from
being abused because it causes undesirable withdrawal symptoms.
Naltrexone
Naltrexone
acts in a similar way to buprenorphine. However, it is especially
useful because of its availability as a long-acting injectable. Often
marketed as Vivitrol®, the injectable version of this medication
only needs to be administered monthly. This makes it great for
outpatient rehab, where patients may forget to take daily
medications, putting them at risk of relapse.
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