At Hawkins Psychiatry, we offer management for opioid use disorder/dependence, benzodiazepine and alcohol use disorder. Buprenorphine (Medication Assisted Therapy) for individuals 18 and older with a history of opioid use disorder or dependence. For alcohol use disorder we use Acamprosate (Campral), Vivitrol injection or Naltrexone.
In addition to treatment using Sublocade injection, Suboxone or Subutex, we also provide maintenance therapy with Buprenorphine, Naltrexone tablets and Vivitrol injections. Buprenorphine (Subutex) and buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) can be used to detoxify or to provide maintenance therapy for opiate dependence. To prevent relapse we closely monitor progress with on-site urine toxicology screening and supportive psychotherapy.
Worldwide, about 500 000 deaths are attributable to drug use. More than 70% of these deaths are related to opioids, with more than 30% of those deaths caused by overdose. According to WHO estimates, approximately 115 000 people died of opioid overdose in 2017. Opioid overdoses that do not lead to death are several times more common than fatal overdoses.
The number of opioid overdoses has increased in recent years in several countries, in part due to the increased use of opioids in the management of chronic pain and increasing use of highly potent opioids appearing on the illicit drug market. In the United States of America (USA) the number of people dying from opioid overdose increased by 120% between 2010 and 2018, and two-thirds of opioid-related overdose deaths in 2018 in the USA involved synthetic opioids, including fentanyl.