By John Lee

Some people say that by taking methadone to overcome an addiction to heroin or other opiates, you’re just trading one addiction for another.

Is this true?

No, fortunately, it’s not.

People using methadone as a part of an addiction treatment program may become dependent, but not addicted, to methadone.

Dependency

Methadone substitutes in the brain for any opiate of abuse. If you used to take heroin and then switch to methadone, the methadone activates the same receptors in the brain that the heroin used to fill up. With these receptors filled and “satisfied,” you don’t feel withdrawal symptoms or drug cravings.

If you were to stop taking methadone suddenly, your opiate receptors would go unfilled and you would feel methadone withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings. Methadone, like all opiates, creates a physical dependency. Once you start using the medication in a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) program, you will become physically dependent on the medication. Ultimately, you will have to endure a period of withdrawal symptoms if you decide to stop using the drug, but the experience is far less painful than withdrawing from heroin or other opiates.

Participants in an MMT program will experience stable moods and increased clarity, no intoxication, no drug cravings and improved health. Although methadone users become physically dependent on their medication, they do not suffer from this dependency.

Addiction

People who use methadone as part of a methadone maintenance treatment program do not meet the criteria for addiction.

MMT methadone users do not:

• Get high - at an appropriate daily dosage, methadone induces little or no intoxication
• Lose control over their use - they take a regimented daily dosage
• Suffer consequences from their use of the drug yet continue to use it - they generally enjoy increased health and well-being by switching from a drug of abuse to a stabilizing medication like methadone
• Crave the drug - at an appropriate daily dosage, methadone users feel little or no drug cravings

Although methadone users become dependent on the drug (just as a diabetic is dependent on insulin), they do not exhibit the behaviors typically associated with addiction.

Methadone is not a perfect medication, and the pros and cons of this form of addiction treatment need weighing against those of alternative treatments, such as Suboxone therapy or detoxification and residential care. However, those considering methadone as a treatment for opiate addiction should not worry about getting addicted to their medication. When used correctly, methadone is proven to be one of the safest and most effective forms of addiction treatment.