The primary objective of detoxification is to relieve withdrawal symptoms while patients adjust to a drug-free state. The best documented drug-free treatments are the therapeutic community residential programs lasting at least 3 to 6 months. Methadone programs Methadone treatment has been used effectively and safely to treat opioid addiction for more than 30 years. Properly prescribed methadone is not intoxicating or sedating, and its effects do not interfere with ordinary activities such as driving a car. The medication is taken orally and it suppresses narcotic withdrawal for 24 to 36 hours.
Patients are able to perceive pain and have emotional reactions.
Among methadone patients, it has been found that normal street doses of heroin are ineffective at producing euphoria, thus making the use of heroin more easily extinguishable. Also, methadone is medically safe even when used continuously for 10 years or more. LAAM and other medications LAAM, like methadone, is a synthetic opiate that can be used to treat heroin addiction. LAAM can block the effects of heroin for up to 72 hours with minimal side effects when taken orally. In 1993 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of LAAM for treating patients addicted to heroin.