Why Methadone Clinics Don’t Work

Methadone clinics provide methadone maintenance treatment to people who are trying to recover from opiate addiction. In theory, patients come to methadone clinics each day to receive medication (methadone) that controls their opiate withdrawal symptoms so they can live a normal life while seeking substance abuse treatment, and avoid some of the worst symptoms of opiate withdrawal. In reality, methadone clinics have a number of drawbacks that severely limit their effectiveness.

Patients May Have to Travel to Reach the Nearest Clinic

An opiate addict who wants methadone treatment may find that there are no methadone clinics near where he or she lives. Because of the stigma attached to addiction, and opiate addiction in particular, many communities don’t want methadone clinics. As a result, opiate addicts must often choose between traveling great distances every day to reach a clinic, and continuing to abuse heroin or prescription drugs.

Methadone Is Strictly Controlled

Methadone has a high potential for abuse and it’s not unheard of for opiate addicts to obtain it on the black market when other opiate drugs are hard to come by. As a result, methadone clinics tightly control how much methadone is dispensed, and to whom.

This can result in humiliation for many patients, who find themselves directly supervised even when giving urine samples, for example. New patients are not allowed to take any methadone home with them, and even longer term patients who are given a take-home supply may be asked to report to the clinic or to a pharmacy on short notice to prove that they have not been abusing their methadone.

Patients at methadone clinics can’t really travel, because they’re dependent on their specific provider for methadone. If they’re arrested for any reason, they can’t get methadone. If they can’t make it to the clinic for their daily methadone dose, they’ll go into withdrawal. They’re also vulnerable to abuses of power on the part of the prescribing physician.

Methadone Patients May Be Tempted to Quit Their Programs

That’s because spending time in a methadone clinic will bring them into contact with people who may still be active addicts. It’s important to cut these kinds of ties if you want to recover from addiction.

If you want to quit using heroin or other opiates, outpatient detox with Suboxone is the way to go. Call us today at 1-888-699-5679 to learn more.

Do Any Florida Drug Rehabilitation Centers Treat Depression?

If you’re looking for a Florida drug rehabilitation center that also treats depression, look no further than the Delray Center for Healing. We offer partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient and outpatient treatment programs for depression. Our Florida drug rehabilitation center also offers dual diagnosis treatment for folks who suffer from both a substance abuse disorder and a depressive disorder.

Partial Hospitalization Program for Depression

The most intensive program for depression at our Florida drug rehabilitation center is the partial hospitalization program (PHP). This isn’t just your standard crisis management program. The PHP program for depression at our Florida drug rehabilitation center seeks to find and address the real causes of your depression so you can experience lasting health and happiness. This program uses a wide range of treatment modalities to construct a solid therapeutic foundation on which you can rebuild your life.

Intensive Outpatient Program for Depression

Patients undergoing depression treatment at our Florida drug rehabilitation center will experience our Intensive Outpatient Program as the next, less intense, level of care between partial hospitalization and regular outpatient treatment. IOP uses many of the same treatments to help patients regain their full functioning and avoid relapse in the early days of depression recovery. This program offers the support of a solid therapeutic community that breaks down the feelings of isolation and loneliness so many people suffering from depression experience.

Outpatient Treatment for Depression

Outpatient treatment offers ongoing, long-term care for the patient recovering from depression at our Florida drug rehabilitation center. We believe that abruptly halting or interrupting treatment is detrimental to long-term recovery success. Treatment should continue as long as necessary for the patient to develop the healthy living and coping skills necessary to lifelong health.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment for Depression

Mental illness and substance abuse don’t cause one another, but boy can they feed off of one another. If you’re suffering from a substance abuse disorder as well as depression, you need treatment for both. Our Florida drug rehabilitation center is the perfect place to get it. We’re well-equipped to successfully treat both conditions.

Are you or someone you love at the end of your rope with depression? We can help. Call us today at 1-888-699-5679 to learn more.

Will Obama care Pay for Outpatient Addiction Treatment

The Affordable Care Act is bringing massive changes to the American healthcare scene, and many people are wondering how it will affect their ability to receive treatment for conditions like substance abuse. Will Obamacare pay for outpatient addiction treatment? The short answer is, yes.

Substance Abuse and Addiction Are Largely Untreated

23.5 million Americans are currently struggling in the grip of active addiction, but only 2.3 million of them are receiving any form of substance abuse or addiction treatment. The Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” is expected to extend addiction treatment benefits to all Americans by the end of 2014.

Outpatient Addiction Treatment Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurance providers will be required to treat outpatient addiction treatment – and inpatient addiction treatment – as “essential care.” That means all plans sold under Obamacare will be required to offer some form of coverage for outpatient addiction treatment and even more comprehensive inpatient programs.

The ACA will also require insurance providers to cover office visits for substance abuse and related disorders. That should mean expanded access to outpatient addiction treatment, as more than half a million primary care physicians will be empowered to offer their patients outpatient addiction treatment themselves in their offices.

What’s more, the ACA will require that insurers cover outpatient addiction treatment for all stages of addiction – not just the more severe stages, which often occur only after an addict has suffered serious harm due to his or her condition. Soon, treatment will be available even to people in the earliest stages of a substance abuse disorder.

Under the ACA, physicians and addiction counselors will be able to focus on providing a lot more preventative care for substance abuse disorders, and they’ll also be able to provide early intervention for more substance abusers. This means better recovery outcomes for many, at a significantly reduced cost to all concerned. Even the 60 million Americans who do not have an addiction but who engage in risky substance use will be able to get substance abuse treatment.

If you need addiction treatment, The Delray Center for Healing can help. Call us today at 1-888-699-5679 to learn more.

What Can I Expect from My Outpatient Detox Delray Beach Program?

If you’re thinking of entering our outpatient detox Delray Beach program for prescription drug and opiate addiction, you’re probably wondering what to expect. You may even be feeling apprehensive. Many people who are struggling with opiate dependence hesitate to enter treatment because they are afraid of facing painful opiate withdrawals. But when you enroll in our outpatient detox Delray Beach program, your withdrawal symptoms will be managed and minimized as much as possible.

Outpatient Detox with Suboxone

When you enter our outpatient detox Delray Beach program, you’ll be prescribed Suboxone, an opiate maintenance drug that relieves your withdrawal symptoms so that you can focus on getting counseling for your substance abuse issues and rebuilding your life.

You’ll begin your outpatient detox Delray Beach program with a consultation with our physician, Dr. Raul J. Rodriguez. It’s important that you come to your appointment in full withdrawal. This way, Dr. Rodriguez can prescribe the exact dosage of Suboxone you need to manage your symptoms.

You may have heard of methadone maintenance for opiate addiction. Suboxone maintenance is different, because Suboxone is an abuse-resistant drug. You can’t get high from it by taking more than your recommended dose. This means that you can receive a supply of the drug to take home with you. When you enroll in our outpatient detox Delray Beach program, there’ll be no daily trips to a methadone clinic, no interruption to your schedule, and no stigma! No one will need to know you’re being treated for opiate addiction except those you choose to tell.

Tapering Off of Suboxone

Many people facing the prospect of opiate maintenance treatment fear that they will end up taking the maintenance drugs for much longer than they wanted to – or even for the rest of their lives. When you enroll in our outpatient detox Delray Beach program, you can take advantage of the Rodriguez Method for Outpatient Detoxification to help you come off Suboxone easily. This method ensures that you won’t end up “stuck” on Suboxone maintenance and will protect you from post-acute withdrawal syndrome.

Are you ready to give our outpatient detox Delray Beach program a try? Call us today at 1-888-699-5679 to learn more.

Bath Salts More Addictive Than Meth, News Article Says

According to a news article published by The Scripps Research Institute in their column, “News & Views,” recent research findings show that the recreational drug “bath salts” is more addictive than meth. The news article reported the results of an experiment comparing the drug-seeking behaviors of rats addicted to bath salts with those of rats addicted to meth.

The rats were first allowed to form an addiction to their respective stimulant drugs by dosing themselves intravenously through the pressing of a lever, the news article said. An experiment designed to establish how much the rats wanted each drug required the animals to press their levers an increasing number of times in order to obtain each dosage. It was assumed that if the rats worked harder, by pressing the level more often, this would indicate that they were more addicted to the drug in question.

According to the news article, rats addicted to meth pressed their levels an average of 60 times for each dose. Rats addicted to bath salts pressed their levers an astounding 600 times on average for each dose. Some rats pressed their levers as many as 3,000 times for a single dose of bath salts, the news article said. Scientists interpret this as the addicted rats willing to work more than 10 times as hard to get a dose of bath salts as they will to get a dose of meth.

Though bath salts have only recently entered the public consciousness as a recreational drug, the compound they’re derived from is not at all new. The news article pointed out that 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone, the active ingredient in bath salts, are a derivative of cathinone, a compound found in the khat leaf, which is traditionally chewed in the Arabian peninsula and North Africa for its stimulant effects. Cathinone was synthesized long ago by pharmaceutical manufacturers, but was never used commercially. Synthetic derivatives have been sold as “plant food” or “bath salts” since the early 2000s, when black market chemists rediscovered the drug. Their sale is now banned in the U.S. due to their horrifying effects on users.

If you or someone close to you is addicted to bath salts, it’s imperative that you get help right away. Call us at 1-888-699-5679 to find out what The Delray Center for Healing can do for you.