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OxyContin is legal when prescribed by a doctor, but thousands of unsuspecting patients find out every year that it rivals heroin and fellow opiates in addictive power. Abuse of OxyContin as a recreational drug has reached epidemic heights, no doubt fueled by availability and reputation. These people also discover that OxyContin can be abused with ease but quit only at great difficulty. Withdrawal effects, physical cravings, and disorientation are real risks, especially in the first few days, and the recovering addict needs more than just will power.

He probably needs buprenorphine hydrochloride, marketed in the U.S.A. as Suboxone. It's an opiate, like OxyContin and Vicodin, but it's also a partial opioid agonist, which means that it can both activate and block the opioid receptors in the brain. Basically, the receptors promote panic and withdrawal when the OxyContin runs out, but Suboxone acts to placate those receptors while not triggering pleasure and reward centers. In this regard, it's not unlike Methadone as used to heroin addicts, but Suboxone can be used for a shorter time with greater effect. Until the last few years, a hospital or clinic stay was necessary for opiate detox, usually followed by a month or two in drug rehab. Today the patient can complete a Suboxone program from the doctor's office on outpatient status.

Suboxone also contains an opioid antagonist called naloxone, which produces instant withdrawal symptoms if someone dissolves the tablet and attempts to inject it. Naxolone is essential to keep the Suboxone from being abused and accomplishing its necessary purpose: to ease the client through drug detox as an outpatient. At the right dosage, Suboxone can accomplish the five most important steps to OxyContin rehab:

1. Suppress symptoms of withdrawal
2. Block the euphoric effects of OxyContin and other opiates
3. Decrease cravings for opiates
4. End illicit use of OxyContin
5. Make sure the patient stays in treatment

Of course the follow-up treatment should involve a variety of programs, including family counseling, behavioral modification, good nutrition and physical fitness, and individual counseling. If the underlying pain is still a problem, it can be addressed without opiates, using such therapies as hypnotism, deep tissue massage, acupressure, and meditation. A drug treatment center would be able to offer all of these options, unless they're exclusively for in-house residents. Even a brief search of the web will turn up plenty of specialists who conduct OxyContin rehab on an outpatient basis.

If this sounds like going to the family doctor, it's not. Even if the client isn't going to be sequestered in a clinic for several weeks away from family, friends, and co-workers, they will need all the support they can get. Love is the most important ingredient. As an outpatient, the client has a good chance of conducting his OxyContin treatment in private, but the doctor will insist upon him having a loving support network. Although it's tempting to avoid family and friends, this is not the time to do so. The recovering addict will be amazed how much sympathy she'll get and how many others have been in similar circumstances.

A recovering OxyContin abuser needs help physically, mentally, and emotionally, but they don't need recriminations and blame. The past is the past, unless it comes back to haunt them in the form of bad company they should avoid. This is where a full-featured rehab program is so essential, in breaking all the bad associations and habits that enabled the problem. Suboxone has been called a wonder drug for heroin detox, but it's only as good the behavior modifications and self-exploration that go along with it. It's a blessing that the patient doesn't have to be separated from family and familiar surroundings, but a responsibility accompanies that trust.

Prescription drug addiction is often difficult to confront, because the addict may feel entitled to the medicine by reason of a previous physical condition. But the labels clearly visible on every bottle of pills spell out the dangers in detail. Addiction is a side effect, often cause by prolonged use. No one would feel guilty if he suffered internal bleeding, liver problems, sexual dysfunction, or any number of serious side effects of prescription drugs, and neither should the recovering addict. She simply needs treatment.

The process may take months, although the recovery rate is high for motivated OxyContin users, most of whom never thought they would have a drug problem. Suboxone works wonders during the detox phase, but its long-lasting appeal is in step number five listed above: Make sure the patient stays in treatment.