Is Treating Opioid Addiction Enough to Prevent Relapse?

Is the treatment of opioid addiction sufficient for minimizing the frequency of relapse? The disease is largely due to changes in brain function, including processes mediated by opioid receptors and the neural system’s response to pain and stress. Buprenorphine, a partial opioid antagonist and a medication used to treat addiction, interacts with the brain’s receptors and mitigates the effects of withdrawal, resulting in protective, stabilizing effects on patients. However, despite the stabilizing effect of buprenorphine treatment, addiction gradually affects parents and then their children and close members of the family. It appears as if opioid addiction is transmitted within the family like a viral infection, from one member to another. Most notably, patients with a family history of THC, alcohol, or opioid addiction are the most likely to relapse and relapse multiple times. We consider that multiple relapses and propagation of the opioid epidemic are in part due to the other undervalued or unaccounted role of employment as a risk factor within the family. While our clinic served several patients, we noted that our patients came to us from rural regions, small towns, or country villages. The common features of these patients were unemployment and Caucasian origin. Those who successfully stabilized with buprenorphine very commonly refer more patients to us, who are often members of the patient’s family. -Dr. Bogdan Nowicki