What You Need to Know About Methadone Treatment Guidelines

As one of the most heavily regulated medication treatments on the market, methadone programs must adhere to strict procedures for administering the drug and monitoring patient progress. Methadone treatment guidelines, for the most part, dictate every aspect of the treatment process, from dosing schedules to behavioral treatment requirements.

Anyone considering entering a methadone program can get a good sense of how this treatment approach works by gaining a general understanding of methadone treatment guidelines.

Methadone Treatment

According to the Missouri Department of Mental Health, methadone treatment guidelines are derived from the Federal Guidelines for the Accreditation of Opioid Treatment Program. This document lays out methadone treatment protocols as well as specific requirements that must be met by facilities that administer methadone for opiate addiction treatment.

Programs that administer methadone must also be authorized to operate as opioid treatment programs.

Call our helpline at 800-678-5931(Paid Advertiser) to see if your insurance will help pay your rehab costs.

Overview of Methadone Treatment Guidelines

Methadone treatment can help you maintain long-term abstinence.

Dosing Protocols

According to the National Academies Press, methadone’s ability to relieve withdrawal and cravings effects depends on maintaining stable levels of methadone in the body’s bloodstream, . In order to achieve this, treatment providers must follow a dosing schedule that dictates initial starting dosage amounts, dosage adjustment procedures and the conditions under which dosage adjustments can be made.

The heavy regulation surrounding methadone has to do with its classification as a Schedule II narcotic and relative potential for abuse and addiction.

Behavioral Treatment Component

Methadone treatment guidelines require patients to attend behavior-based treatment sessions as a condition of receiving daily doses of methadone. The behavioral treatment component helps a person identify addiction-based thinking and dismantle the belief systems that drive destructive thinking patterns.

Behavioral treatments also provide a person with healthy ways of dealing with stress and coping with everyday pressures and responsibilities. Interventions commonly used include:

Group therapy
Individual psychotherapy
Relapse prevention training
12 Step support groups
Motivation therapy

Take-Home Provisions

Methadone treatment guidelines require patients to frequent program facilities on a daily basis at which time they receive their daily methadone dose and attend behavioral treatment sessions. Once a person continues to make progress in terms of abstaining from illicit drug use and attending treatments sessions, he or she is allowed to take home multiple methadone doses.

Take-home provisions remain in effect for as long as a person continues to comply with treatment program requirements.

Tips on How to Avoid Relapsing While in Methadone Maintenance Treatment

For people recovering from chronic opiate addiction, methadone maintenance treatment offers therapeutic benefits unavailable through other treatment approaches. For many, methadone maintenance treatment or MMT becomes the treatment of last resort when all other attempts at recovery fail. That being so, the risk of relapse never really goes away, especially when recovering from long-term addiction ….

Treatment Duration

While a person can choose to discontinue treatment at any time, methadone treatment guidelines recommend treatment duration run for a minimum of one year. According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, this time -line is considered necessary for a person to be able to maintain continued abstinence once methadone treatment ends.

Safety Issues

While methadone carries a much lower risk of abuse and addiction than other opiate-based drugs, the potential is still there. In order to reduce these risks, methadone treatment guidelines require treatment providers to monitor for drug abuse practices as certain types of drugs, such as sedatives and alcohol can be used to create a “high” effect when combined with methadone.

Overall, methadone treatment guidelines are designed to maximize the therapeutic benefits of methadone while providing recovering addicts with the tools needed to maintain abstinence on a long-term basis.

If you or someone you know are considering methadone treatment and need help finding a program that meets your needs, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 800-678-5931(Paid Advertiser) to speak with one of our addiction specialists.