what are something a doctor might perscribe for someone quitting opiates?

[alexthealien]

besides methadone or suboxone...like for depression maybe

 

[rangrz]

depression... I'd imagine most probably an SSRI, with SNRI, tricyclic and tetracyclic anti-depressants also being used. Examples are, respectively, Citalopram, venalfaxine, Imipramine and mirtazapine.

to help with acute withdrawal symptoms you might a beta androgenic antagonist like propanolol or alpha agonist like clonidine. Or you might get, or have in addition to, a sedative from the benzodiazapine class. I've also heard of people being RX'd an atypical anti-psychotic in a low dose, usually quetiapine or olazapine.

 

[cj]

for deppression SSRIs are first line treatment I heard someone on here say that cymbalta worked well for them.

 

[laCster]

lyrica will help with depression, anxiety, and withdrawals

 

[Phoenix2]

Clonidine can suppress some withdrawal symptoms from what I understand.

 

[rangrz]

^
Yes, mainly the restless legs, tachycardia, sweating and other PNS effects, but it also dulls anxiety to a degree.

 

[opiatekrzy]

as far as acute withdrawl, ur best luck is Clonidine 0.1mg/3x max...only one time my primary gave me methadone 10mg tab 3x daily, for two months in a row then stopped and said he cnt be a constant supplier that i have to seek a clinic and he did his best to help, which i ended up abusing my 90 methadones anyway...my other primary gave me clonidine and referred me to detox...so usually with a primary they will throw ya some clonidine and maybe ambien for sleep, and say go to detox..

 

[Cane2theLeft]

to help with acute withdrawal symptoms you might a beta androgenic antagonist like propanolol or alpha agonist like clonidine.

I think you mean adrenergic... you don't want to antagonizethe sex hormones It's my understanding that compared to clonidine though, beta blockers have limited use in opioids withdrawal.

This topic was actually discussed quite a bit in my addiction's counseling classes (which, if it isn't clear, I am NOT yet professionally certified so take it for what it's worth).

Nearly everyone will display psychiatric symptoms coming off of most drugs, especially opioids, and it's important to give it time so proper diagnosis can be made before treatment is started. Nearly everyone will experience depression during acute and/or post-acute withdrawals but if the addiction issues are addressed, pharmaceutical management of issues such as depression are rarely necessary and often contraindicated because people will rely on that instead of doing the necessary work to address their addiction issues. Everyone wants a magic pill but this mentality is typically what gets people INTO addiction, not out of it.

Generally people are advised to get proper assessment for their addiction issues and follow the treatment recommendations based on ASAM patient placement criteria. Often this corresponds with consultation with a general practitioner and/or a psychiatrist but typically it's better to hold off on psychiatric diagnosis and treatment until you're far enough along in your recovery to be able to appropriately differentiate what is from the drug use, what is organic, etc.

In some cases, the symptoms are debilitating enough and/or obviously independent enough that pharmaceutical symptom-management is necessary.

Nearly completely unrelated to everything above are medications prescribed specifically for mitigation of withdrawal symptoms... many good examples are mentioned in previous posts such as clonidine, benzodiazepines, muscle relaxers, sedatives/hypnotics, atypical antipsychotics, etc. There has been a lot of discussion on this in threads on withdrawal/detox (primarily in Other Drugs) so if you search around you can find a lot more information.