Maintenance Programmes
Not everyone wishes to detox from opiates. Maintenance is a perfectly good way to manage an addiction problem. We are happy to provide a maintenance prescription programme. Before we can prescribe we need to assess you and this will mean taking your medical, psychiatric, social and drug history, examining you psychiatrically and medically, doing tests and getting you to take a witnessed tolerance test dose of medication (if indicated). It is usually possible to start prescribing for you from the day of your assessment if you comply with our requests and instructions.
WHAT CAN WE PRESCRIBE?
We can prescribe Methadone, Morphine, Subutex and Suboxone and these are the mainstays of opiate maintenance but we can consider other medications e.g. Dihydrocodeine.
We are not able to provide a maintenance Heroin/Diamorphine or Diconal prescription.
If you are currently dependent on amphetamine or barbiturate and prescribed by another doctor, your care can be transferred to us. We do not however initiate prescriptions for amphetamines or barbiturates.
We can prescribe benzodiazepines or other sedatives, providing there is good evidence that you are dependent on these medications and are willing to consider a reduction schedule.
If you have an addiction to an unusual medication it is best to telephone and discuss this with us.
We can prescribe Naltrexone, Antabuse, Acamprosate, Bupropion and other relapse prevention treatments.