Comparison of the Two Forms of Rehab Treatment for Heroin Addiction in Rhode Island

If you are a Rhode Islander and looking for heroin addiction treatment for someone in your family or for yourself, you must know that buprenorphine treatment is now available in the state along with the traditional methadone treatment. The FDA has only recently approved buprenorphine as a medication that can be used in heroin treatment and now several centers for heroin addiction treatment in Rhode Island are allowing this medication to be used as an alternative to methadone.

But if you are new to either forms of heroin treatment in Rhode Island, you must know some basic points about them. First, remember that both methadone and buprenorphine are opiates just as heroin is. The basic principle of their use in heroin treatment is that they can reduce the urge the person feels for heroin. As long as the medication is on, the treatment is underway. However, these medications should not be stopped abruptly, because they are opiates themselves and can cause withdrawal effects of their own. That is the reason medical monitoring is needed for these two forms of treatment.

Methadone is by far the more stringent type of treatment. Methadone can cause a strong withdrawal of its own and can also fatally interact with some other medications the person may be taking. Hence, methadone treatment for heroin addiction in Rhode Island is provided only in the inpatient format, where constant medical supervision can be provided. But, buprenorphine is not so strict with its withdrawal. As a result, buprenorphine is the drug of choice for outpatient forms of heroin addiction treatment.