Like methadone, buprenorphine can reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms without producing intense feelings of pleasure and intoxication in people who have opioid use disorder. As a result, methadone produces less intense feelings of pleasure in people with opioid use disorder while reducing their withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings.5 Additionally, medications are used to help people detoxify from drugs, although detoxification is not the same as treatment and is not sufficient to help a person recover.
Advancing Recovery Research
However, when taken as prescribed by people with opioid use disorder, methadone and buprenorphine prevent drug cravings and withdrawal symptoms without causing the intense feelings of pleasure (or “high”) that other opioid drugs produce. However, starting naltrexone treatment may be harder for people using opioid drugs than starting buprenorphine or methadone treatment. For people with addictions to drugs like stimulants or cannabis, no medications are currently available to assist in treatment, so treatment consists of behavioral therapies. Research on the science of addiction and the treatment of substance use disorders has led to the development of research-based methods that help people to stop using drugs and resume productive lives, also known as being in recovery. Both methadone and Addiction Relapse Risks buprenorphine bind to and activate the same mu-opioid receptors in the brain as do other opioid drugs.
Drug Misuse and Addiction
Different types of medications may be useful at different stages of treatment to help a patient stop abusing drugs, stay in treatment, and avoid relapse. The chronic nature of addiction means that for some people relapse, or a return to drug use after an attempt to stop, can be part of the process, but newer treatments are designed to help with relapse prevention. Treatment enables people to counteract addiction’s disruptive effects on their brain and behavior and regain control of their lives. In general, the more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that taking drugs will lead to drug use and addiction.
Despite these advances, we still do not fully understand why some people develop an addiction to drugs or how drugs change the brain to foster compulsive drug use. Behavioral therapies help people in drug addiction treatment modify their attitudes and behaviors related to drug use. As with other diseases and disorders, the likelihood of developing an addiction differs from person to person, and no single factor determines whether a person will become addicted to drugs. Surges of dopamine in the reward circuit cause the reinforcement of pleasurable but unhealthy behaviors like taking drugs, leading people to repeat the behavior again and again.
Addiction can feel very scary, especially if someone in your family has an addiction and it can feel like life is out of control. So, not having control of how much you drink or how much drug you use This causes changes in the reward circuitry of the brain and makes the inhibitory circuitry of the prefrontal cortex less strong.
Are medications for opioid use disorder addictive?
For example, it is now well-known that tobacco smoke can cause many cancers, methamphetamine can cause severe dental problems, known as meth mouth, and that opioids can lead to overdose and death. Imaging scans, chest X-rays, and blood tests can show the damaging effects of long-term drug use throughout the body. Stopping drug use is just one part of a long and complex recovery process. Treatment should be tailored to address each patient’s drug use patterns and drug-related medical, mental, and social problems. Medications are also available to help treat addiction to alcohol and nicotine. Relapse rates for drug use are similar to rates for other chronic medical illnesses.
About NIDA
Introducing drugs during this period of development may cause brain changes that have profound and long-lasting consequences. The fact that this critical part of a teen’s brain is still a work in progress puts them at increased risk for trying drugs or continuing to take them. But drugs can quickly take over a person’s life. Those changes may last a long time after a person has stopped taking drugs.11 Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences.† It is considered a brain disorder, because it involves functional changes to brain circuits involved in reward, stress, and self-control.
Other NIDA Sites
- These medications include methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone.2 Another medication, lofexidine, is available to treat the acute symptoms of opioid withdrawal.3
- Developing an FDA-approved e-cigarette for smoking cessation could improve public health.
- The initial decision to take drugs is typically voluntary.
- Biological factors that can affect a person’s risk of addiction include their genes, stage of development, or ethnicity.
Addiction is a brain disease that results from repeated use of a substance. I had never heard of the word until unfortunately I had a family friend pass away from a heroin overdose, and then the word addiction started coming up, addiction, heroin addiction. So, I will say, for me, when I was 14 years old I had no idea what addiction was. However, naltrexone blocks the effects of opioids.
NIDAMED: Clinical Resources
There is no need to visit special treatment clinics.9 Since the COVID-19 pandemic, health care providers can even prescribe buprenorphine via telehealth services, making it easier for people to get buprenorphine and stay in treatment.12 These medications include methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone.2 Another medication, lofexidine, is available to treat the acute symptoms of opioid withdrawal.3 They may also help treat withdrawal symptoms that occur when people stop taking opioids and reduce drug cravings without creating the strongly pleasurable effects of opioid drugs.
AI screening for opioid use disorder associated with fewer hospital readmissions
Biological factors that can affect a person’s risk of addiction include their genes, stage of development, or ethnicity. The initial decision to take drugs is typically voluntary. Occasional drug use, such as misusing an opioid to get high, can have similarly disastrous effects, including impaired driving and overdose. Some people may start to feel the need to take more of a drug or take it more often, even in the early stages of their drug use. When they first use a drug, people may perceive what seem to be positive effects. Therefore, education and outreach are key in helping people understand the possible risks of drug use.
The medication lofexidine (Lucemyra®) is approved for treatment of withdrawal symptoms that can happen when people suddenly stop taking opioids. This is because a person usually needs to stop taking opioids for 7 to 10 days first.15 However, NIDA-supported research suggests that a faster treatment approach that reduces the waiting time to start naltrexone can also be effective.17 Naltrexone can be as effective as buprenorphine in helping people avoid returning to drug use when it is taken for a long period of time. Buprenorphine is another opioid medication that is used to treat opioid use disorder. However, methadone activates these receptors more slowly than those drugs and also remains in the body longer.
Although personal events and cultural factors affect drug use trends, when young people view drug use as harmful, they tend to decrease their drug taking. Research shows that combining addiction treatment medicines with behavioral therapy ensures the best chance of success for most patients. As with most other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, treatment for drug addiction generally isn’t a cure. No one factor can predict if a person will become addicted to drugs.
- Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences.† It is considered a brain disorder, because it involves functional changes to brain circuits involved in reward, stress, and self-control.
- A person is diagnosed with opioid use disorder if they have two or more of the symptoms and behaviors related to their opioid use listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition.
- So, people with acute or chronic pain may be advised to continue using these medications.
- Methadone is an opioid medication that has been used for more than 50 years to treat opioid use disorder.4 It binds to and activates the same molecules on neurons (nerve cells), called mu-opioid receptors, as heroin, fentanyl, and other opioid drugs.
Detoxification alone without subsequent treatment generally leads to resumption of drug use. An overdose happens when the person uses enough of a drug to produce uncomfortable feelings, life-threatening symptoms, or death. If a person uses as much of the drug as they did before quitting, they can easily overdose because their bodies are no longer adapted to their previous level of drug exposure.
There are FDA-approved medications that can help people stop or reduce opioid use. This booklet aims to fill that knowledge gap by providing scientific information about the disorder of drug addiction, including the many harmful consequences of drug use and the basic approaches that have been developed to prevent and treat substance use disorders. Today, thanks to science, our views and our responses to addiction and the broader spectrum of substance use disorders have changed dramatically. Those views shaped society’s responses to drug use, treating it as a moral failing rather than a health problem, which led to an emphasis on punishment rather than prevention and treatment. When scientists began to study addictive behavior in the 1930s, people with an addiction were thought to be morally flawed and lacking in willpower. For much of the past century, scientists studying drugs and drug use labored in the shadows of powerful myths and misconceptions about the nature of addiction.
Results from NIDA-funded research have shown that prevention programs involving families, schools, communities, and the media are effective for preventing or reducing drug use and addiction. More good news is that drug use and addiction are preventable. These brain adaptations often lead to the person becoming less and less able to derive pleasure from other things they once enjoyed, like food, sex, or social activities. This reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high they felt when first taking the drug—an effect known as tolerance. A properly functioning reward system motivates a person to repeat behaviors needed to thrive, such as eating and spending time with loved ones. As with other chronic health conditions, treatment should be ongoing and should be adjusted based on how the patient responds.
Because addiction can affect so many aspects of a person’s life, treatment should address the needs of the whole person to be successful. Behavioral therapies can also enhance the effectiveness of medications and help people remain in treatment longer. When a person recovering from an addiction relapses, it indicates that the person needs to speak with their doctor to resume treatment, modify it, or try another treatment.52
