Naltrexone and LAAM?

[lostinthis]

Does anyone know anything about the following drugs for treatment of opiate addiction?

"Naltrexone is not as well known as methadone, but it is highly effective in persons truly motivated to overcome their addiction. Naltrexone, when used in conjunction with clonidine, can shorten the detoxification time to one day as opposed to the two weeks necessary for the same results from methadone. This results in considerable cost savings. However, people using naltrexone have a higher relapse rate then patients using methadone. Doctors theorize that this is because naltrexone does not have side effects, such as the withdrawal symptoms experienced by methadone users, when it is discontinued.

LAAM is another alternative to methadone. It needs to be administered only three times a week, which, like naltrexone, results in significant cost savings. Studies have shown that patients on LAAM may need more counseling and support when they first begin treatment as their ignorance of the treatment causes more anxiety in them."

[vron]

Hi,  I am also interested in finding out about naltrexone - but in particular the implants.  This is what I know to date.  

Naltrexone in tablet form is widely available and it stops people using opiates because it blocks the euphoric effects from them so anyone on naltrexone who then uses heroin is wasting their money.

The problem with the tablets are of course that when a person decides they really do want to use today they will stop taking the naltrexone.  However, naltrexone has been developed into an implant, which is inserted under the patient's skin.  This takes around 20 minutes under local aneasthetic and is performed on an out-patient basis.  The patient can choose between various lengths of time for the implant to last ie 3 months, 6 months or 12 months.

The benefit of this type of administration of naltrexone is that it is there daily for the chosen length of time and so the patient cannot cheat by opting not to take naltrexone on a given day.  Also the implants will provide the patient with the necessary breathing space to get heroin out of their brains, most people tell me that it takes about a year or more to get passed the call of heroin.  Patients can opt for further implants before their current one is about to expire, thus providing extra cover for as long as they want.  

The problems with them (as there always is a problem with anything) is that a few individuals may reject the implant or the insertion sight may become infected.  Some, but very few have had to be removed following rejection or infection - but with infection they can usually be saved if those attending to it give steroid injections in the first instance followed by antibiotics, but they need to act quickly to stop the infection or the implant will have to be removed.

I suppose that some people will be put off by the above but the way I see it is many people go ahead and have implants for cosmetic reasons and these can have the same problems but still people do it.

If I was a heroin addict and was injecting - therefore facing the possibility of dying every time I injected I would consider that the slight chance of an implant going wrong versus the next shot killing me, well to me it's a no brainer.

The other problem around implants is that they are not widely available and are only available privately at a cost to the patient.

I live in the UK and have spoken to many many heroin addicts who have never heard of a naltrexone implant.  It is available in only 3 private clinics over here and the 12 month one costs about £4,000.00.

I hope that this has been of some help to you and I would be very interested in knowing your thoughts on this.  All the best Vron.