• Problems
• How We Help
• Treatment
• Fast Help
• Family Intervention
• Secondary Care
• Accommodation
• Rehab Costs

Treatment of Heroin Addiction

There are a number of methods used in the treatment of heroin addiction, and there are a number of mitigating circumstances that define how well an individual treatment may work when compared to another. It is pretty safe to say that addicts brought for help early on are far likelier to succeed in their course of rehabilitation, and even though it won't be easy they are sure to find the road simpler than heavy, long term addicts. Long term heroin addicts are often treated less like substance abusers and more like patients with a disease - it is a long and difficult road to recovery and there is no hiding from the fact that many sobered up addicts do relapse, but heroin addicts can be 'cured' of their addiction with the right amount of willpower and enough outside help from friends, family and professionals.

One of the most common methods of treatment is to administer methadone - a synthetic opiate that reproduces similar effects to heroin, with less damaging results. The drug substitutes for heroin when an addict is in treatment and is generally taken in oral form - injection is possible, it just doesn't offer much of a benefit over taking the drug orally. Methadone treatment is a polarising subject, and one that has dominated many medical journals for decades since the invention of the drug - some see the substitution of one addiction for another (methadone proving just as addictive as heroin) as something of an exercise in futility, but others see the safer, controlled addiction of methadone as a step up from the 'chaos' of heroin.

Other treatments for heroin addiction include LAAM (levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol) - a treatment similar to methadone - Naltrexone - a drug that blocks the effects of opiates and stops users from feeling any positive effects from heroin - and buprenorphine - another medication treatment that has been introduced relatively recently, approved in 2002.

Psychological assessment and emotional support - back up from friends, family and professionals - is the foundation of any successful treatment program, and a heroin user trying to get off the drug without support is far less likely to succeed than those that actively seek help from other people - it doesn't make it certain that an addiction will be cured, but it certainly helps.