Medication-Assisted Recovery from Opioid Addiction: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

Recovery is being used as a conceptual fulcrum for the redesign of addiction treatment and related support services in the United States. Efforts by policy, research, and clinical leaders to define recovery and calls for assertive models of long-term recovery management raise critical questions about how transformation efforts of recovery-focused systems will affect the pharmacotherapeutic treatment of opioid addiction and the status of patients participating in such treatment. This article highlights recent work advocating a recovery-oriented approach to medication-assisted treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Addiction
• medication
• methadone
• buprenorphine
• recovery management
• recovery-oriented systems of care
• recovery-oriented methadone maintenance
• stigma