A FDA-approved treatment program is available to Fayette County residents to prevent relapses for patients seeking recovery from opioid misuse.
The approved program is a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) called Vivitrol.
Vivitrol is an injection medication administered once per month that controls cravings and reduces the risk of relapse by blocking receptors to the drug in the patient’s brain. The Vivitrol medication is non-addictive.
To qualify for the Vivitrol program, a patient must first complete an assessment at a counseling center and be compliant with counseling services, according to Leigh Cannon, Fayette County Health Department deputy health commissioner.
For patients in Fayette County, Cannon said that counseling is most commonly through the Fayette Recovery Center and Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says that under federal law, MAT patients must receive counseling, which could include different forms of behavioral therapy. These services are required along with medical, vocational, educational, and other assessment and treatment services.
Information on Vivitrol.com describes a two-step approach to treating opioid misuse:
“Opioid addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that affects people psychologically and physically. Effective treatment programs often focus on both aspects of addiction through counseling and medication.”
If the Vivitrol MAT program is determined through the assessment to not be an effective treatment for the patient in recovery, the patients are referred to a different place, according to Cannon.
The Vivitrol program is billed through the patient’s insurance. Some patients do not have health insurance. Those patients are referred to other locations that offer Vivitrol on a sliding scale fee based on income, according to Cannon.
Vivitrol is the only MAT program offered through the Fayette County Health Department. Two other medications approved by the FDA as MAT programs to treat opioid addiction are methadone and buprenorphine.
