Agonist:
A drug or medication that can interact with receptors to stimulate drug actions or effects.
Full opioid agonist:
A drug or medication that stimulates activity at opioid receptors in the brain that are normally stimulated by naturally occurring opioids. Examples of full opioid agonists include morphine, methadone, oxycodone, hydrocodone, heroin, codeine, meperidine, propoxyphene, and fentanyl.
Partial opioid agonist:
A drug or medication that can both activate and block opioid receptors, depending on the clinical situation. Under appropriate conditions, partial agonists can produce effects similar to either agonists or antagonists. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist.
Antagonist:
A drug or medication that prevents molecules of other drugs/ medications from binding to a receptor (eg, an opioid receptor). Antagonists can also displace other opioids, precipitate withdrawal, or block the effects of other opioids. Examples of antagonists include naltrexone and naloxone.
Craving:
The intense desire for something (also called “psychological dependence”). Dependence (physical or psychological): As a general term, the state of needing or depending on something or someone for support or to function or survive. As applied to alcohol and other drugs, the term implies a need for repeated doses of the drug to feel good or to avoid feeling bad. In the DSM-IV, dependence is defined as “a cluster of cognitive, behavioral and physiologic symptoms that indicate a person has impaired control of psychoactive substance use and continues use of the substance despite adverse consequences.” Being compelled to keep using a drug — even when you realize that you have a physical or psychological problem that is probably caused or made worse by the drug.
Dopamine:
A naturally occurring chemical that helps cause feelings of pleasure in the brain. Opioid agonists stimulate dopamine activity.
Euphoria:
A feeling of pleasure or of being “high.
Maintenance:
The phase of treatment when the person is taking a stable dose and working with a physician or counselor to address other issues affecting his/her dependence and ability to rebuild his/her life. Opioid Dependence: A chronic brain disease that involves a physical, psychological, and behavioral need for an opioid drug. This need is unrelated to medical necessity for pain relief.
Opioid Receptors:
Specific places in the brain where molecules of opioid drugs or medications attach and start to exert their effect.
Overdose:
When a chemical substance is taken in quantities or concentrations that are large enough to overwhelm the body, causing life-threatening illness or death.
Precipitated Withdrawal:
Withdrawal symptoms that result when one drug displaces another drug from the receptor, and the drug has no or less effect than the drug it displaced. When SUBOXONE is given before you are in mild-to- moderate withdrawal from the opioid you have already taken, it can cause withdrawal to occur more rapidly and intensely.
Tolerance:
A decrease in response to a drug dose that occurs with continued use. An increase in the dose of the drug is required to achieve the effects originally produced by lower doses.
Triggers:
Activities, sounds, places, people, images, events, or other things that may cause a dependent person to want to have the pleasurable feeling of the misused drug or medication again. Triggers can bring on cravings.
Withdrawal:
The uncomfortable symptoms (such as pain, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, anxiety, sleep problems, cravings) that develop when a person stops taking a drug or medication on which he or she has become dependent.
Pat Moore Foundation’s alcohol & drug addiction treatment programs are licensed and certified by The State of California. Pat Moore Foundation patients have access to opiate and opioid detoxification provided by a third party medical corporation that uses suboxone for the detoxification process. Our individual homes are on a unique co-ed campus where we offer gender specific treatment. We are located in Costa Mesa, in Orange County, Southern California, close to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, and only an hour’s drive from Los Angeles and San Diego. To speak with a counselor, please call us 24-hours at the number above, or if you’d like us to contact you, send a confidential message online by filling out our online form.
Note: All medical services are administered by medical professionals, which are facilitated and operated solely under the jurisdiction of a separate medical corporation.