New Castle CTC – MAT

Opioid addiction can negatively impact virtually every part of a person’s life. In addition to damaging a person’s physical and mental health, an untreated opioid addiction can also undermine their ability to maintain healthy relationships, make appropriate progress in school or at work, establish financial independence, and otherwise fully engage in a satisfying lifestyle. Thankfully, opioid addiction is a treatable condition. Several decades of research has documented the effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, in helping people end their opioid use and remain in recovery. MAT uses prescription medications that can ease some of the more severe symptoms of opioid withdrawal. These medications allow MAT patients to stop using opioids without experiencing the overwhelming distress that would occur if they tried to end their substance abuse on their own. MAT patients also participate in counseling. The counseling component of MAT addresses the social and behavioral aspects of opioid addiction and recovery. Counseling can help MAT patients understand the root causes of their struggles with opioid addiction and identify triggers that could threaten their recovery.