Medication-Assisted Treatment

Medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction is the use of medicine to block cravings and withdrawal symptoms together with counseling and behavioral therapy to achieve sustainable recovery. MAT is an evidence-based, proven effective treatment for opioid use disorder that significantly increases the chances of long-term freedom from addiction for many people. 

Drugs like fentanyl, oxycodone, and heroin are opioids that flood the brain with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that signals pleasure and triggers the brain to ask for more. For many people, the cycle turns into an addiction. For someone prone to addiction, the pleasure can seem more like euphoria, a sensation that the brain comes to crave. It takes more of the drug to attain a pleasurable state, and over time, the individual needs to take the drug to just feel normal. Desire for the drug becomes an insatiable hunger that leads to impaired function and erratic, destructive behavior. The absence of the drug causes anxiety, depression, and a host of extremely uncomfortable physical withdrawal symptoms like fatigue, muscle cramps, nausea, and night sweats.

MAT works to break the cycle of addiction with prescription medication along with therapy and behavior modification techniques tailored to the individual. The medication stabilizes the brain chemistry by satisfying physiological cravings without triggering the euphoria effect. Absent the adverse withdrawal symptoms and the rewarding pleasurable sensation, counseling and therapy are generally much more effective.

MAT is a cutting-edge, whole-patient therapy with demonstrated effectiveness for many people. Describing MAT as “high-quality, evidence-based care,” both the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians state that “evidence shows medication-assisted treatment works.” 

“There are decades of research concluding MAT is more effective than most other forms of treatment, especially in the case of opioids,” according to experts. “For most people, the use of medications combined with psychosocial treatment is superior to drug or psychosocial treatment on its own.”

While there are many treatment options available for people with opioid use disorder, MAT offers a more hopeful path than abstinence-based programs or drug substitution regimens alone.  Florida Treatment Services has opioid treatment programs in central Florida offering on-site dispensing of methadone and suboxone.