SOUTHINGTON - Soon after Freeman Heath received a naltrexone shot designed to help him beat his heroin addiction, he put the ""relapse is part of recovery"" adage to the test. Heath investigated the shot's capabilities by using heroin after having received it, and to his joyous surprise, the heroin did not work.
Heath has also used methadone and suboxone, medicine administered in pill form designed to suppress narcotic withdrawal and opioid cravings for up to 36 hours. The short window of time these medications are effective and the responsibility assumed by a recovering addict to take the pills consistently are these medications' downfalls, said Rahim Shafa, a Massachusetts doctor who administers naltrexone.
""Those who are drug addicted are already in a confused state,"" Shafa said. ""Add to that the responsibility of choosing to take their pills over getting high, many will choose to get high.""
He added that the rate of compliance is low for all drug users.
""Compliance is low for people who take blood pressure, asthma or heart medication just as it is low for people trying to free themselves from addiction,"" Shafa said.
Eighty percent of deaths from drug overdoses occur after a person has been clean for a period of time and then relapses, Shafa said. That individual's tolerance for the drug is no longer as high as it was when he or she was using regularly. Before the heroin injection is even complete, Shafa said, the recovering addict who made one mistake could stop breathing.
""In these situations, the drug shuts down the body's breathing mechanisms,"" Shafa said. ""This is why naltrexone is so crucial; there is no room for relapse.""
Naltrexone is manufactured by DuPont, for treatment of alcohol addiction that is reportedly an effective treatment for opiate dependence. It can be injected or surgically implanted in a patient's fat tissue using a time-release pellet.
Along with the shot, DuMais said it's important for recovering addicts to augment their treatment with therapy and to make new friends who do not use or sell drugs.
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