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One of our most written-about topics is heroin as it relates to withdrawal, overdoses, treatment, and Medicated Assisted Treatment. The reason is that heroin addiction is a growing problem in the US, and we want the public to become aware so a solution can be found. So, here we go again:

According to this article on The Huffington Post, heroin overdose deaths increased by 39% in 2013 from 5,925 to 8,257. Interestingly enough, that 2300 or so lives lost account for almost all of the increase in total overdose deaths (from 41,340 to 43,982). The great majority of overdose deaths come from opioid painkiller use or abuse, so tighter controls have been put on doctors who prescribe them. What has happened, though, is a migration from the less available prescription drugs to the available and less expensive heroin. More heroin users, especially a flood of inexperienced users, equal more overdoses. It’s the risk heroin addicts take with each use.

So now that we know that soccer moms, the bus driver, and your friend at work might be using heroin, how do we stop the spread of use and reverse the growing trend of overdose deaths?

The HuffPo article mentioned above suggests a stopgap measure that would increase distribution of naloxone to local police. This drug immediately stops the effects of an opioid on the body, thereby halting an overdose and saving a life. This would certainly save a good number of lives with widespread implementation, but we still need to deal with the addiction. Without some form of addiction treatment, opioid addicts are likely to resume use even after being on the brink of death from an overdose. In fact, use is likely to resume within the 24 hours that follow.

This is why we provide a variety of treatment programs for opioid addicts. The ideal is medical detoxification followed by abstinence in residential or outpatient addiction treatment. For addicts who have tried but can’t maintain abstinence for more than a short period of time, we provide Vivitrol treatment and Methadone/Buprenorphine Maintenance along with addiction counselling. These treatment programs all put addicts on the road to recovery and abstinence, which is the best way to permanently decrease the amount of heroin overdose deaths.