Once a patient begins to receive methadone treatment for their opioid addiction, the physician will place the patient in their own methadone maintenance therapy. This entails knowledge about the users drug history and medical history. The physician then can create the optimal treatment for the user and dosage level that they believe will help the user get thru the withdrawl symptoms and on the road to recovery. There are ceilings placed on clinics by state and federal government agencies so don’t go thinking that it is a free ride through the withdrawl process.

Each clinic can tailor the dose they feel will help keep the patient from feeling the need to seek opioids. There will be times that the dose is reduced to see if a patient can tolerate the effects. The goal is to slowly reduce the dosage of methadone while still keeping the patient free from adverse side affects. It will not be a steady decrease but rather adjustments up and down in dosages over the time period of treatment.

Frequently these adjustments are monitored on a daily basis as the patient can feel the effects of the medication that quickly. Withdrawl symptoms can happen in a few hours for some, leading to renewed opioid usage. If the patient is recovering well, the dosage is continued to be lowered with to goal of complete detoxification of the drugs in the system. This therapy treatment holds true for patients who are treated for chronic pain with methadone. They too need to slowly be weened off the medication or they will feel the effects of methadone and have withdrawl symptoms.

The road to recovery is a difficult and long one. This medication is intended to help those make it down that road with less difficulty from the physical symptoms of withdrawl with the goal of recovery.