The Right Opioid Dosing And Avoiding The Addiction Trap

By Kevin Graham


The miracle of opioid pain relief is fatally limited by tolerance, addiction, and respiratory depression. Buprenorphine, when combined with a mu agonist, results in game-changing effects. Patients experience potent, dose-related analgesia from the agonist, but have NO euphoria. The therapeutic window is widened. Patients unable to control their use of a mu agonist alone gain that control when on buprenorphine. And most exciting, buprenorphine indefinitely anchors tolerance, maintaining analgesia WITHOUT DOSE ESCALATION. This finding offers huge implications for pain management and opioid dosing.

Opioid receptors are present in everyone's body. These receptors are responsible for bringing emotions like pleasure and pain in the body. Several narcotics, such as hydrocodone and oxycontin, give relief while one is experiencing severe pain. The main problem with the opioid is they are very addictive in nature and can result in death if taken in high dose. There has been a huge usage of the narcotic medication by people of every age group in the United States.

However, naltrexone is used mainly as a drug that acts to control alcohol dependence and addiction. This action of naltrexone occurs in high doses. Low dose naltrexone is used to treat a number of illnesses including Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis (MS) and fibromyalgia. Whilst some degree of extensive research into the effect of the drug and Crohn's disease has been done, the use of this drug on multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia still need much investigation.

Research shows narcotic use is higher among the less educated and unemployed. A recent report in the American Journal of Medicine specifically looked at fibromyalgia patients receiving opioids for their pain. There was an increased incidence of unemployment, disability payments, and history of substance abuse. Also, the statistics showed overall lower education and an increased incidence of unstable psychiatric disorders. The study was not small and contained over 450 patients, so the results were most likely valid despite potential statistical variances.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid mainly prescribed as a long range replacement therapy for dependence to opioids. While methadone was once administered strictly at licensed methadone rehabilitation detox hospitals and drug clinics, within the past several years the drug is being prescribed in a pill form for severe pain. As such, the drug now can be discovered on the street, and quickly has become a top cause of accidental overdose within recreational drug users.

Opioid-induced hyperalgesia is a condition that can result from long-term opioid use. It represents a heightened perception of pain and can make one feel worse with more pain sensation. The solution to this problem is a decrease or discontinuation of the medication which should be accomplished under medical supervision. The discontinuation can result in less pain than while on the medications.

Induction is a treatment which carefully is followed by the center's clinical staff to slowly assist a new patient in adjusting to their methadone medicine. Patients typically are started on a safe methadone dose which introduces a low threat of overdose, and their dose then is increased every couple of days until the individual arrives at a dosage that successfully eliminates their withdrawal symptoms to opioids.

There was also a temporary absence of REM sleep, which is the type of sleep people go into as they go deeper into sleep. So narcotics appear to affect both the quality and quantity of sleep, which is obviously suboptimal for patients who have painful conditions and need sleep for regeneration and healing potential.

By blending drugs, abusers will risk overdose and dangerous interactions. Permitting this harmful experimentation encourages and enables addiction. If someone you love or yourself is abusing methadone, quit before you cause further harm.




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