Thousands of
people experience negative health outcomes from the overuse or misuse of
opioids, a drug class that includes both illegal substances, such as heroin,
and prescription medicines for pain relief. Can mindfulness boost the effects
of traditional treatments that relieve opioid cravings?
The National
Institute on Drug Abuse report that around 21–29% of people, whose doctors
prescribe them opioids for the management of chronic pain, end up misusing
these drugs. Furthermore, some 8–12% of people who take prescription opioids
develop opioid use disorder.
Some of the
criteria that specialists use to diagnose opioid use disorder — according to
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — include:
·
taking
opioids for longer or in larger quantities than the doctor advised
·
experiencing
intense and hard to control cravings for opioids
·
opioid
use negatively affecting performance at work or school
Usually,
when a person receives a diagnosis of an opioid use disorder, doctors prescribe
methadone maintenance therapy.
In this form
of therapy, doctors offer people controlled doses of methadone — also an opioid
— to help reduce withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings for opioid drugs.
"Methadone
maintenance therapy has been an effective form of medication treatment for
opioid use disorder," notes Nina Cooperman, an associate professor and
clinical psychologist in the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Rutgers Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ.
"However,
nearly half of individuals on [methadone maintenance therapy] continue to use
opioids during treatment or relapse [within] 6 months," she adds.
For this
reason, Cooperman and colleagues were interested in finding out whether some
alternative practices, specifically, mindfulness, could help boost the
effectiveness of methadone maintenance therapy for people with opioid use
disorder.
From
source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326699.php
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