Opiate Withdrawal

What is opiate withdrawal?

The term 'opiate withdrawal' describes the physical symptoms that comes after regular use of an opioid analgesic drug. When the body is regularly exposed to an opiate analgesic that works by attaching itself to proteins in the brain and spinal cord called opioid receptors, it no longer makes its own chemicals that ordinarily manage pain in the body.

A correlating street term is 'dope sick' or 'dope sickness.'

What causes opiate withdrawal?

When the body becomes used to receiving a certain amount of an opiate on a regular basis, it comes to depend upon its replenishment. Should you cease or dramatically reduce your opiate intake abruptly, your body will go into withdrawal. This generally will not occur with short-term, low doses of opiates, but only after an extended period of a month or more or a high dosage prescription.

What are the symptoms of opiate withdrawal?

In the absence of the opioid drug and the body's natural response, a sickness sets in characterized by:

Nausea and vomiting
Diarrhea
Hot and cold chills
Insomnia
Restlessness
Muscle and bone pain
Irritability
Panic

At Meditox, it is our goal to save you from having to endure these debilitating symptoms. Rather than quitting 'cold turkey,' we would like to help you break your addiction to opiates with a prescription to buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is an FDA-approved drug for medicated detox. In the form of Subutex or Suboxone, buprenorphine in increasingly smaller doses allows you to taper off your body's physical dependence to opiates. With a treatment plan created by you and your Meditox doctor, you can make use of either prescription and be drug-free in as few as six weeks.

How common is opiate withdrawal?

It is estimated that at least 10 percent of the population have misused opiates at some point in their lifetime. In fact, a number of people become physically addicted to an opiate prescription like Vicodin or Codeine through no fault of their own. Simply by following a prescription given to them by their doctor, their body built up a tolerance to the drug and, in so doing, a physical addiction or need for constant replenishment of that drug. Some patients who are prescribed addictive pain killers during a hospital stay may find themselves enduring withdrawal symptoms upon returning home.

At Meditox, there is no judgment as to how an opiate addiction came to be. Our goal is to help people live their lives free of addiction to opiate pain killers. If an outpatient, medicated detox program sounds like it might be a fit for you or a loved one, call us today for an appointment at 888-MEDITOX.

If you feel that Meditox might be the right solution for you or your loved one, please call us for a toll-free and private consultation:

Additional Resources

National Institute on Drug Abuse: The Science of Addiction
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Preventing Drug Abuse
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Drug Abuse and Addiction
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Drugs and the Brain
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Addiction and Health
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration: Heroin
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Heroin
Heroin: Abuse and Addiction
La Heroína: Abuso y Adicción

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“Today is week #5! I have my life back, this morning my husband told me he hadn't seen me like this in three years! My daughter told me "your back Mom"! My Fybromyalgia is down to 2 to 3 percent of what it was, I am fully able to live with the Joy and Love and Laughter which has always been my way.”

Mother, Real Estate Agent, 49
August 11, 2006

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