What Are the Types of Treatment in OxyContin Rehab?
Your OxyContin rehab should proceed under medical supervision. It should also include individual or group counseling with a mental health care professional who has special training in providing narcotic addiction treatment. Participating in programs such as Narcotics Anonymous can also help, as can moving into a sober living house if you have an insecure home situation. But experts now recognize that stopping and staying off OxyContin becomes easier when medications and psychological services are provided.
Why Are Drugs Needed for OxyContin Rehab?
OxyContin is a synthetic form of an opium derivative. Its pharmaceutical name is oxycodone, and it produces many of the same physical effects of heroin. Like that street drug, OxyContin is difficult to quit because doing so is so physically painful and unpleasant. Within hours of taking your final dose of OxyContin, you can start experiencing these withdrawal symptoms:
Counseling is an important part of OxyContin treatment.
- Muscle pain
- Sweating
- Insomnia
- Cramping
- Shaking
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
Receiving nonnarcotic medications to reduce anxiety and prevent nausea can make these symptoms more bearable.
What Medications Help With OxyContin Rehab?
Once withdrawal symptoms abate, cravings and habits that lead to OxyContin use often return. Three main types of medications can replace the opioid so you do not feel the incapacitating high. Also, closely monitored tapering of the doses of drugs used to help with OxyContin rehab can make it possible to stop using opioids altogether.
The three medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat OxyContin addiction, along with links to federally approved patient information for each, are:
- Buprenorphine, usually prescribed as Suboxone
- Naltrexone
- Methadone
What Forms of Mental Health Services Help With OxyContin Rehab?
The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration cites three types of mental health interventions that work well for opioid addicts:
- Basic education
- Motivational interviewing and motivational enhancement therapy (MET)
- Cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT)
Learning about addiction and recovery processes can help you gain and exercise control. MET, which center guidelines describe in much greater detail, involves having a counselor lead you toward identifying and applying your own mental and emotional strengths to prevent relapse. CBT, which receives a much more in-depth discussion on the National Alliance on Mental Illness website, requires figuring out what triggers drug cravings and developing techniques to counter those thoughts.
Is Outpatient or Inpatient Treatment Best for OxyContin Rehab?
The choice to check into a hospital or clinic to undergo OxyContin detox and recovery is highly individual. Overdose or serve withdrawal symptoms may send you to an emergency room, but the decision to remain as an inpatient will depend on economic and personal factors that only you can weigh. Do know, however, that while an outpatient program may seem more convenient and manageable, OxyContin rehab only succeeds if you work closely and diligently with doctors, pharmacists, nurses, counselors and loved ones.
