Methadone is a derivative of the Asian poppy plant, making it an opiate. After the material for the drug is collected from the plant, it is synthetically altered to amplify, purify and direct its effects. This process makes methadone extremely useful in managing chronic pain in terminal patients and helping opiate addicts better manage their period of withdrawal. Helping opiate addicts with methadone is often called methadone maintenance treatment, or MMT.
Opiate Withdrawal
Much like methadone, all opiates originate from the poppy plant. This shared origin gives many opiates similar traits and characteristics. For example, many opiates, like heroin and opium, often cause euphoric rushes when introduced to the brain and have depressive, dulling or soothing effects. When an opiate enters the body, it causes chemicals to bind to opiate receptors in the brain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Addiction to opiates works by the brain getting used to this occurring and even craving it. When someone withdraws from opiates, he is likely to experience symptoms like agitation, anxiety, vomiting, nausea, stress, insomnia and other uncomfortable effects, says Drugs.com.
Methadone and Opiate Withdrawal
The reason methadone is used in maintenance treatment is its long release time. Usually, a patient won't need to be treated more than once a day. The feeling of anxiety and craving associated with withdrawal from opiates originates from the opiate receptors in the brain. According to the CDC, methadone is an effective way of treating withdrawal, since once the drug is introduced to the body, it binds with these receptors. Methadone, however, does not cause many of the negative effects that drugs like heroin do. Methadone is administered and designed not to cause euphoria, mood changes and other symptoms that often cause drug abuse, says the CDC.
MMT and Opiate Addiction
The reason methadone is widely praised in maintenance treatment is because it remains one of the safest, most tested and most effective methods of treating withdrawal from opiates. According to Addiction Search, the average opiate addict goes through withdrawal 10 to 25 times during her lifetime failing to cease the habit or relapsing back after a few months. However, with MMT, these results are drastically different. The Addiction Treatment Forum lists five separate studies that all show results as high as 80 percent in the reduction of illicit use of opium after three months. Although these numbers are far from ideal, methadone does provide an important step toward helping addicts cope with their withdrawal periods. Unfortunately, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, only about 20 percent of heroin addicts alone received MMT in 1999.
MMT and Economics
Not only is MMT extremely effective in reducing illicit use of opiates, it is also beneficial economically. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, MMT costs about $13 a day for a single individual. The agency also reports the cost-benefit ratio of MMT is 4 to 1. This means for every dollar spent on MMT, four are saved in future costs. Other sources, like the Addiction Treatment Forum, quote studies that find this value to be as high as 7 to 1. The Addiction Treatment Forum also reports an addict undergoing MMT makes, on average, twice as much as an untreated opiate addict. It costs about $42,000 to leave an addict untreated and another $40,000 if he is imprisoned, but only $3,500 to pay for MMT.
Other Benefits of Methadone
Methadone helps prevent diseases like AIDS and others often transmitted by shared needles, says The Drug Policy Alliance. MMT helps reduce criminal behavior. This is largely accredited to patients in MMT no longer buying and selling drugs, leading to fewer arrests, says The Drug Policy Alliance. There are also a great number of deaths among opiate addicts, up to three or four times as many deaths among opioid addicts as there are among MMT patients, according to the Addiction Treatment Forum. The site also reports that welfare, the justice system and crime cost up to 17 percent more in communities where there are no open MMT clinics.
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