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Running head: METHADONE MAINTENACE AND ITS CAPABILITY IN DEALING WITH HEROIN CRAVING. 1

METHADONE MAINTENACE AND ITS CAPABILITY IN DEALING WITH HEROIN CRAVING 2

Methadone Maintenance and its Capability in dealing With Heroin Craving

By Alexa Vigenser

Research Methods/Psych 302

Argosy University

March 4, 2015

Assignment 2 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
With clarity and good writing style and grammar, you presented your proposed methods section for your research paper. · participants (15 points) · instruments (15 points) · procedure (15 points) · ethical issues and how they would be handled (20 points) Overall, nice work in these sections, for the most part they were specific and detailed. Please review my comments on your paper for more help on how to improve this section.	55/65
You submitted an introduction and literature review that included a research question, a statement regarding the importance of the research topic, background information and a review of the literature regarding the topic, and a proposed hypotheses. Good start with your introduction Alexa. The introduction and review of the literature should be at least 2 full pages in length. In addition, you need to support your information and ideas with scholarly sources, you should include at least 4 of the scholarly sources you found to support your review of the literature. The introduction is an introduction to your topic, research question and hypothesis and then you go into the literature review. The literature review then is a critical and in depth evaluation of previous research. It is a summary and synopsis of a particular area of research, allowing anybody reading the paper to establish why you are pursuing this particular research study. A good literature review expands upon the reasons behind selecting a particular research question. It is not a chronological catalog of all of the sources, but an evaluation, integrating the previous research together, and also explaining how it integrates into the proposed research program. All sides of an argument must be clearly explained, to avoid bias, and areas of agreement and disagreement should be highlighted. It is not a collection of quotes and paraphrasing from other sources. A good literature review should also have some evaluation of the quality and findings of the research.	15/20
You wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Your formatting is starting to take shape, keep working on it.	13/15
Total:	83/100

Methadone MaintenaceMaintenance and Its Capability in Dealing With Heroin Craving

Introduction

Heroin is a highly addictive and illegal substance that is manufactured and processed from morphine, morphine is a substance that is extracted from the seed pod of numerous poppy plants. Naturally, heroin is sold in white powder or it is s black sticky substance known as “black tar”. Heroin is the most rapidly used opiates in today’s society, and while purer heroin is becoming more common, it is also being mixed with other drugs or even substances such as powdered milk, sugar, starch, or quinine. In many cases, heroin has a side effect that causes the user to suffer from withdrawal symptoms in the case where one tries to stops using it (Libby, 2007).

These withdrawal symptoms include; stomach cramps, the body either feels cold or hot, sweating, body aches and pains, restlessness, nausea and vomiting, poor sleep, and diarrhea. However, these withdrawal symptoms tend to take at least five days before they disappear but still the craving for heroin gets stronger every day. Methadone, on the other hand, is also a drug just like heroin, however, it takes a longer time being active in the body of the user. Methadone is a drug that is prescribed to heroin users to avoid suffering from the withdrawal systems once they stop abusing heroin. In cases where there are symptoms even after use of methadone, the effects are less severe (Libby, 2007). As much as methadone is effective in eliminating or reducing withdrawal symptoms in a heroin addict can it as well manage to eliminate the craving that the heroin addict suffers after stopping the abuse? In addition, is methadone an effective treatment to opiate abusers? These are the two major research questions that this essay intends to research upon and answer.

Literature Review

According to physicians and doctors that deal with those that suffer from drug addiction, especially heroin use, know that heroin is a highly addictive substance, and its effects are extremely hazardous just as it is the case with opiate abuse. To begin with, methadone is usually a long-term maintenance treatment plan especially for people who depend on heroin and opium. Immediately methadone is administered to a heroin addict patient, the main intention is usually to improve the general condition of the addict by helping the addict from suffering withdrawal symptoms which affect the addict emotionally, physically, and psychologically (Libby, 2007).

Methadone is known for taking long hours before its effects can start being realized. At times, a single dose of methadone takes from four to five days before it starts working and fighting heroin in the body or the craving aspect. After it starts working, it lasts at least one to two days in the body. This calls for a lot of patience from the drug addict patient for methadone to work. Methadone as a matter of fact significantly reduces the craving for heroin in a drug addict patients. With gradual diminishing of the craving, methadone eventually eliminates the entire craving, and the drug abuser is able to lead a normal life free from drugs. However, since methadone is a long-term treatment plan and the drug abuser is at high risk of heroin craving, the doctor’s advice is that as methadone continues to work in the body, the addict should keep busy with personal affairs and also attend counseling programs (Rosdahl, & Kowalski, 2008).

There is no definite time after which a heroin and opiate drug addict persons are said that he/she should stop using methadone. This is because doctors say that different patients respond differently to treatment. Also, in cases where methadone is used as the prescription and the user uses it wrongly, it has its own side effects in the body of the user thus taking it even longer to heal the craving (Burson, 2010). There are at least three different characteristics that doctors use to tell that a drug addict has fully recovered from the addiction and craving. These symptoms include;

· Life stability for a period exceeding one year on the methadone maintenance treatment plan and shows the will and want to stay away from heroin.

· Sign of improvement even when the doctor reduces the methadone dose to the drug addict patient thus showing that the body has fully responded to methadone and can survive without the methadone treatment.

· Taking up life challenges and responsibilities just like any other ordinary person. For instance, taking care of one's family, business, support, and counseling other heroin drugs addicts, and working efficiently in employment (Burson, 2010).

For many years society viewed Methadone Maintenance Clinics as a trade out for heroin users and felt that, while it stopped the craving for heroin, it did not change the addictive behavior. “A combination of counseling and psycho-pharmaceutical support to methadone detoxification is most effective” (Myers and & Salt, 2013).

Methadone is safe medication when it comes to fighting narcotic drugs, and a patient can use the drug without fear until the patient feels that he/she is well again. However, it is proper to follow the doctor’s advice strictly faithfully.

Methods Comment by Yvonne Bustamante: Your methods section should be broken up into the 4 sections participants, instruments, procedure, and ethical issues, as shown in the template and Sample research paper.

This being a research case apart from the information from doctors, 20 other participants was randomly selected. Similarly, they are all patients of drug abuse of either opium or heroin. It was wise to proof the doctor’s word either right or wrong using people from different regions for the purpose of watching their reaction and body response to methadone. All the 20 participants were injected with an equal dose of methadone regardless whether one had abused opium or heroin. Surprisingly just like the doctor had said, at least 12 participants did not at all suffer from withdrawal symptoms while the 8 remaining suffered slight withdrawal symptoms.

Surprisingly, among the 20 participants, two drug patients both having abused heroine seemed to have methadone reaction in their bodies on the third day. This was contrary to the doctors information that methadone is supposed to take four to five days before its effects can be realized along with the leveled out dose for each. The fourth day saw eight more heroin abusers start to respond to methadone. The first opium abuse patient began to show signs of response at the end of the five-day while as the other four opium abusers responded the sixth day. However, none of heroin abuse participant went beyond the earlier said five days to respond. This brought the research to a conclusion that different abusers respond different, and that opium abusers can take more that the said five days to respond (Burson, 2010). A further surprise was the reality that the methadone dose has stopped being active after one day to all the participants. However, the craving continued to exceed each and every day as the participants continued to receive more methadone doses. Comment by Yvonne Bustamante: This should not be written as though you have completed the study, but is a proposal for the methods section for a study to test your hypothesis. For the procedure section you need to discuss your procedure. This section should be very specific. It should be a set of instructions of what you did with your participants to perform the study. It needs details and needs to be specific to your study. The procedure includes the step-by-step instructions for your experiment. The procedure should include these two sections, which you answered above: • A description of the experimental design and how participants were assigned conditions. • Identification of your independent variable(s) (IV), dependent variable(s) (DV), and control variables. Give your variables clear, meaningful names so that your readers are not confused. Along with: • Important instructions to participants. A step-by-step listing in chronological order of what participants did during the experiment. For example, you mentioned using surveys and an interview, but it is not mentioned here in your procedure section.

Conclusion

Heroin and opium abuses are a dangerous engagement that has numerous and irreversible hazardous effects to the abuser. Despite that methadone is known and has been proved to have the capabilities of overcoming the withdrawal symptoms and crave, it is a slow and gradual treatment plan process that requires a lot of patience from the abuser. However, the longer the patient takes the methadone dose and abides by the doctors recommendations, the faster the patient recovers from both heroin and opium abuse.

References

Burson, J. (2010). Pain pill addiction: A prescription for hope. Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publ.

Libby, T. A. (2007). Heroin: The basics. Center City: Hazelden.

Rosdahl, C. B., & Kowalski, M. T. (2008). Textbook of basic nursing. Philadelphia: Lippincott

Williams & Wilkins.

Myers, P.L, Salt, N.R. (2013). Becoming An Addictions Counselor , A Comprehensive Text (3rd ED).

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