Earlier this year, Maia Szalavitz reported on drug-court judges' refusal to allow defendants to continue theirmaintenance treatment, putting ailing individuals at risk for recidivism and overdose. In maintenance treatment, those addicted to heroin, OxyContin, and other opioid drugs enter counseling while taking low, daily doses of a medicine such asmethadone, which is also an opioid. The steady maintenance treatment allows patients to manage their cravings without the emotional highs and lows of active drug use that prevent many addicts from holding jobs and acting as productive citizens, as Szalavitz reports. The World Health Organization, the United States' National Institutes of Health, and other medical organizations endorse the treatment, which doctors and researchers consider to be the most effective science-based practice. Finally, it seems politicians are beginning to come around as well.
Such treatment hasn't always been popular in the political sphere, since it involves patients taking a prescription opioid, albeit in doses designed for therapy. Some would prefer to see patients get totally clean without any other drug. But under 10 percent of opioid addicts beat their addiction with abstinence-based programs, as journalist Jason Cherkisreported for the Huffington Post in January.
[For more of this story, written by Francie Diep, go to http://www.psmag.com/politics-...-effective-treatment]
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