Opioid Addiction Treatment for Women in Riverside, CA

NIDA is direct: medications approved by the FDA include methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, and research has shown these medications can reduce the risk of return to drug use and of overdose death. They help people remain in treatment and live a normal life.⁴

They work differently. Methadone binds to and activates the same receptors as heroin and fentanyl, but more slowly and for longer. Buprenorphine activates those receptors to a lesser degree than methadone and can also block other opioids from attaching. Naltrexone works solely by blocking opioid receptors, so opioids no longer cause feelings of pleasure.⁷

One practical detail that catches people out: CDC notes naltrexone is only used for people who have not used opioids for at least 7 to 10 days.⁸ It is not a starting point from active use.

SAMHSA’s guidance is that numerous clinical trials and meta-analyses have shown methadone treatment is associated with significantly higher rates of treatment retention and lower rates of illicit opioid use than placebo or no treatment, and that methadone and buprenorphine treatment have also been associated with reduced risk of overdose death.⁹

How This Works at Sol

Sol does not prescribe medication for opioid use disorder. Sol coordinates with an outside prescriber. That is worth knowing before you call rather than after.

What it means in practice: if medication is part of your treatment, you keep or arrange a prescriber outside Sol, and Sol’s clinical team works with them. Sol’s own prescriber handles medication for the conditions alongside it, which for most women here means depression, anxiety or sleep.

If you are not already with a prescriber, say so on the first call. Sorting that out is part of what admissions and case management do, and it is better handled before you start than three weeks in.

SAMHSA’s clinical guidance is unusually clear on this. The best results occur when a patient receives medication for as long as it provides a benefit, and arbitrary time limits on the duration of treatment with OUD medication are inadvisable.⁹ On methadone specifically, the guidance says patients should continue as long as they benefit, want to, and develop no contraindications, and that longer lengths of stay are associated with superior treatment outcomes.⁹

MedlinePlus says the same thing in plainer language: you may safely take these medicines for months, years, or even a lifetime.¹⁰

Nobody is going to put a date on it for you at intake.

The route is often a prescription. NIDA reports that women are more sensitive to pain than men and more likely to have chronic pain, which could contribute to the high rates of opioid prescriptions among women of reproductive age, and that women may be more likely to take prescription opioids without a prescription to cope with pain even when men and women report similar pain levels.¹³

NIDA also reports that women are more likely to misuse prescription opioids to self-treat for other problems such as anxiety or tension.¹³ That is a different pathway from the one most treatment programs are designed around.

Then there is the gap. CDC found that in 2022, an estimated 3.7% of US adults needed OUD treatment and only 25.1% received medications for it. Among those who did receive OUD treatment, the percentage who received medication was higher for men, 51.0%, than for women, 39.5%.⁵

Put plainly: women who get into treatment are less likely to receive the part of treatment with the strongest evidence behind it. That is a reason to ask about medication directly, wherever you go.