Medication-Assisted Treatment

Medication-assisted treatment is the combination of counseling plus medications that can improve your neurological health. Addiction is a neurological disease that changes the structure and chemistry of your brain. Medicine can help restore balance in your brain, supporting your recovery.

While medicine can care for neurological side effects, counseling is vital to improving emotional health and behaviors that contribute to addiction. The combination of the two treatments can help you achieve long-term abstinence.

Detox, or detoxification, is the process treatment centers use to remove substances from your body. It is typically the first stage of your treatment. Usually, medications help you get through the detox process, through counseling and other types of therapy may also begin during this stage.

Medicines can help you detox slowly. They can also help treat withdrawal symptoms so you feel more comfortable as you detox.

Medication-assisted treatment can help in different stages of recovery. For detox, medical assistance is preferred over trying to detox yourself. Medical assistance is far safer, more comfortable, and more successful.

You may be assessed to see if medication can help you long-term after detox is over. You can benefit from medication-assisted treatment after detox if:

• You have an addiction to drugs or alcohol
• You can comply with prescribing instructions
• You don’t have any health conditions that may interfere with medication useYou understand any alternative counseling you could pursue
• You understand any alternative counseling you could pursue

Medication-assisted treatment may be right for you if you experience other mental health disorders, such as depression or anxiety.

These medicines you are prescribed may be used for a short time as you transition into recovery or long-term to help you stay sober. They may also be used long-term to help treat co-occurring disorders, like depression.

Your counselor may suggest medications including:

• Buprenorphine blocks receptors in your brain so you get less of a high
• Naltrexone decreases the desire to use drugs while reducing the drug’s effect on the brain
• Suboxone reduces withdrawal symptoms and your brain’s ability to feel high
• Antidepressants improve your mood
• Topiramate curbs cravings for alcohol
• Bupropion reduces cravings and treats depression
• Anti-anxiety medications treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and other anxiety disorders

At Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services, we use medication-assisted treatment to help with many different stages of addiction treatment. Contact us today to learn if medication-assisted treatment is the right choice for you.