如何安全停止使用美沙酮

美沙酮是治疗阿片成瘾的一个重要辅助手段，但它也会带来复杂的感觉。事实上，大多数接受美沙酮维持治疗（MMT）的人并不打算终生服用这种药物，尽管12个月是最起码的建议疗程。

MMT service providers, however, often have the opposite goal—they want to keep you on methadone because research consistently shows that it is less likely that you will relapse to heroin addiction. People who participate in MMT programs are also less likely to spread diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C if progress is maintained on methadone long term.

Methadone Maintenance Programs

美沙酮维持方案变化很大，作为美沙酮处方医生。除开药外，有些人非常支持并遵循环绕式服务的最佳做法，例如：

• Drug counseling
• 医疗保健服务
• 如果你需要的话，帮助解决经济问题和福利问题
• 住房援助
• Psychotherapy

其他s do little more than check that your urine does not contain illicit drugs and refill your methadone prescription.

如果你想放弃美沙酮的主要原因是因为你的医生或美沙酮诊所的工作人员的态度，你应该寻找另一个美沙酮服务提供商。它甚至可能值得搬到一个不同的地区，以便能够访问一个真正好的服务，满足您的需求。

关于美沙酮的问题cold turkey而言,这是非常危险的。虽然它不是as dangerous as coming off alcohol or benzodiazepines, it is typically very unpleasant and depending on your dose, you may feel very ill. The withdrawal from methadone is similar to heroin withdrawal.

Tapering Off Methadone

On the other hand, it is possible to withdraw from methadone more gradually. There are several ways of doing this, including tapering off methadone and using another drug, such as Suboxone, to assist the process over the course of several weeks. If a taper is done properly, it will be slow and gradual enough for your body to adjust to lower and lower amounts of methadone without you having to experience撤回symptoms.

你的医生的目标是让你走得足够慢，这样你就不会感到不舒服，不会有食欲，也不会复发，而你自己的目标可能是尽快将药物从你的体内排出。研究表明，缓慢和稳定比快速减量更有可能奏效，所以耐心是很重要的。

逐渐变细的效果如何？

关于人们逐渐减少服用MMT的成功率的研究非常复杂，一般在10%到近90%的成功率之间，最常见的成功率是25%到50%的人成功地逐渐减少服用美沙酮，但仍然戒除鸦片。

Some research suggests that many people who do attempt to quit methadone on their own will relapse to opiate use and that success occurs most frequently when methadone is tapered very slowly with periods of stabilization.

Obviously, this wide variation of success proves that coming off methadone is not a straightforward physical process, and involves many other factors. Of course, it only makes sense that your doctor will be preparing for a relapse, simply because this is a very common occurrence.

和你的医生谈谈

If you are sure you are ready to come off methadone, tell your doctor, and consider a slow taper. Also, plan for how to handle a relapse — which can be much more life-threatening if you reduce your dose — and plan for how to re-initiate methadone if it turns out you aren't ready to manage without it right now.

人们还应该意识到，如果他们停止美沙酮维持和恢复阿片类药物的使用，会有很大的过量用药风险，包括增加死亡风险。