About Methadone and Buprenorphine - Drug Policy Alliance

After MethadoneMany people who must takemedications every day get tired ofdoing so. This is especially true ofpatients on methadone maintenancebecause, in the United States, almostall methadone patients are alsorequired to make frequent visits toa clinic to receive their medication.For many reasons, most methadonemaintenance patients decide atsome point that they want to stoptaking methadone.If you do choose to leave maintenance,your provider should reduceyour dose at the speed you feelcomfortable with. If it is slow enoughyou should not experience majorphysical withdrawal symptoms.staying opioid free over the longterm is the harder challenge. Studiesfind that people who have longhistories of trying and failing to livewithout opioids will probably not beable to stay abstinent for long.It isn’t yet possible to predict whowill be able to live life without opioids,but it doesn’t seem to depend on how“together” you are. If you are detoxingand find that you are craving opioids,or you have finished detoxing andyou are always thinking of opioids,then perhaps maintenance shouldbe part of your life.But if you have tried withdrawingfrom opioids many times and haverelapsed, then you may have foundthat detoxing is the easier part andwww.drugpolicy.org13