Educational Activities Archives

Buprenorphine induction, performed at the right time, remains one of the most satisfying procedures a patient and his/her physician can experience. While there may be initial fears or concerns about precipitating withdrawal, if the patient presents with objective signs of withdrawal and doses are slowly titrated upwards, the patient will leave the office much happier than he/she has been in a long time. The physician will see immediate positive results — a rare occurrence in clinical practice.

When scientists try to find new ways to help patients recover from physical dependence on opioids, they look for treatments that are both safe and effective.

This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) reviews the use of the three Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD)—methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine—and the other strategies and services needed to support recovery for people with OUD.

View the resource.

Medically supervised withdrawal or “detoxification” is the process of taking a person off an opioid on which he or she is physically dependent. The term detoxification is usually called medically supervised withdrawal management to destigmatize the process.

Patients who choose to use Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) for opioid addiction have a choice of medications.[1] One type of MOUD involve the use of an “opioid agonist.” An opioid agonist binds to the same receptors in the brain that were activated by the drug of abuse, but in a safer and more controlled manner. These medications can reduce the symptoms of withdrawal and reduce cravings, allowing for a more gradual, controlled recovery process and reducing the risk of relapse. The two opioid agonists used in MOUD are methadone and buprenorphine. Another type of medication called an “opioid antagonist” is a newer form of treatment that will also be discussed. Naltrexone is the only opioid antagonist currently available for treatment.