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“Our results suggest that abstinence-focused, 12-step residential treatment may be able to help young adults recover from opioid addiction through a different pathway than the more typical outpatient approach incorporating buprenorphine/naloxone treatment,” said John Kelly, the Elizabeth R. Spallin Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Addiction Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
This topic has been debated for many years. What is the most effective way in treating the epidemic of opiate pain medications and the explosive use of heroin? Many individuals and organizations have tried various ways including maintenance programs to treat this addiction. An extended program of Suboxone and its equivalents are often times used for as long as two years. This study that was performed has proven that 28-day inpatient programs, combined with 12 step fellowship and aftercare programs directing patients to structured intensive outpatient programs is what works best.
The study was performed by the Harvard affiliated, Massachusetts General Hospital for Addiction Services. Numbers don’t lie. 83% of people that do not go to inpatient programs and are working with doctors and outpatient clinics only, suddenly disappear after one year.
At Clearbrook in recent years we have had to detox and treat patients for their addiction to Suboxone. All of these patients have told us that it is harder to get off and stay off Suboxone than it was to get off of heroin. The enigma is that people are having a harder time getting off the drug that was supposed to cure the initial problem, opiates.
Clearbrook has been treating the disease of addiction using the very successful method described in this study for over 40 years. We have been fortunate to watch countless thousands of people recover from their hopeless states and go on to have lives that were beyond their imaginations; free from the use of any substance! That is the hope we offer to any who are suffering from addiction.
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