LAAM is one of a number of medications that are available to treat opiate addiction in the United States today. Opiate drugs include heroin and the prescription painkillers OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin, among others. They are widely known as being a difficult addiction to recover from due to the strong psychological effects of the drugs and the painful withdrawal symptoms than addicts usually experience during the detox process.

LAAM is a man-made opiate medication that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat heroin addiction in 1993. It works similarly to the more popular medication used in addiction treatment for opioids like OxyContin and heroin, which is methadone.

LAAM blocks the effects of these drugs for up to three days. That means that if the addict attempts to return to drug abuse while on LAAM, they won’t be able to experience the high. Because it lasts up to 73 hours, individuals only need to take the medication three times per week. This is in contrast to methadone, which has to be taken every single day.

It also greatly reduces the withdrawal symptoms of detox from opiate drugs. For both of these medications, it is necessary most of the time to obtain each dosage individually from a clinic. One of the benefits of LAAM is that the individuals needs to visit the clinic less often. LAAM is taken by mouth and is said to have only few side effects.

In addition to LAAM and methadone, buprenorphrine and Suboxone are other new medications that are being used in the treatment of addiction to drugs like heroin and OxyContin.

Like the other medications, LAAM is not a quick fix for OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, or heroin addiction. Extensive counseling and help from a treatment center is necessary to deal with they psychological effects of drug addiction.