Finally an antidote for Opiate Drug Addiction: Part 2

There are also a variety of slow release naltrexone implants available but these have not yet been approved for clinical use in the USA.

Naltrexone is widely used in Europe and Australia as a long-term treatment protocol for treatment of opiate addiction; the drug only treats the physical dependence of opioids. Naltrexone is not the sole treatment for opiate addiction and must be combined with other psychological and behavior interventions to help maintain abstinence.

While naltrexone is much safer and has fewer side effects than most past medications, it is also very expensive. The single injection, which lasts a month, is over $1000 and most people require treatment for 1-2 years. In addition, there is no guarantee that it will work in everyone. Moreover, the majority of insurance companies do not cover the treatment. Until a cheaper formula is available, the use of naltrexone will be limited to the wealthy who no longer want to spend a fortune buying exorbitantly priced prescription drugs.

The problem of narcotic drug addiction is not trivial and even the most conservative estimates indicate that at least 2-4 million people in the USA alone have some form of prescription drug addiction. Statistics from emergency rooms indicate that visits related to pain killers have increased exponentially in the past decade.

So far, Vivitrol appears to be the best antidote to opiate drug addiction. However, with an ongoing economic crises most people will have a hard time deciding on whether to pay their mortgage or seek a treatment which is as expensive as buying a new car.