Opium has been used as a medicine for hundreds of years, inevitably creating countless addicts. Scientists have conducted a never-ending search for effective cures for opium addiction, morphine addiction (morphinism), and heroin addiction. For most of its history, opium addiction was treated as a disease with no cure, and doctors concerned themselves with treating the symptoms of addiction rather than the root cause. As a result, other opiates were used to lessen the effects of withdrawal. The addict is placed on a regimen of opiates that slowly decrease over time, weaning the addict from his or her addiction. This process of treatment is still used today.
Over the years, scores of seemingly counterintuitive methods have been tried to cure the addict. When morphine was first isolated and synthesized, it was considered to be, and utilized as, a cure for opium addiction. Later, heroin was created, and used as a treatment for morphinism. In the mid-twentieth century, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) likewise was tried as a therapy. The sad truth is that even today there is no real cure for any of the various forms of opiate addiction.
Modern therapy uses a drug called methadone.
Methadone, discovered in the 1940s, is similar to morphine and heroin as a powerful analgesic. When injected, methadone prevents heroin and morphine from working and lessens the withdrawal effects of both. While also an addictive drug, methadone is used to treat heroin and morphine addiction because it is supposedly easier to quit using. Essentially, an addict on the therapy is given a dose of methadone equivalent to that of their heroin or morphine use. The patient receives lower and lower dosages, until they eventually need no drug at all.
Many addicts, however, report that weaning themselves off of methadone is just as bad as coming off of heroin or morphine addiction. Ultimately, primary treatments for opiate addiction rely on replacing one drug for another and are essentially palliative treatments. The user is never “cured” and will always be tormented by the specter of addiction.
Over the years, scores of seemingly counterintuitive methods have been tried to cure the addict. When morphine was first isolated and synthesized, it was considered to be, and utilized as, a cure for opium addiction. Later, heroin was created, and used as a treatment for morphinism. In the mid-twentieth century, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) likewise was tried as a therapy. The sad truth is that even today there is no real cure for any of the various forms of opiate addiction.
Modern therapy uses a drug called methadone.
Methadone, discovered in the 1940s, is similar to morphine and heroin as a powerful analgesic. When injected, methadone prevents heroin and morphine from working and lessens the withdrawal effects of both. While also an addictive drug, methadone is used to treat heroin and morphine addiction because it is supposedly easier to quit using. Essentially, an addict on the therapy is given a dose of methadone equivalent to that of their heroin or morphine use. The patient receives lower and lower dosages, until they eventually need no drug at all.
Many addicts, however, report that weaning themselves off of methadone is just as bad as coming off of heroin or morphine addiction. Ultimately, primary treatments for opiate addiction rely on replacing one drug for another and are essentially palliative treatments. The user is never “cured” and will always be tormented by the specter of addiction.
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