Methadone helps ease withdrawal from heroin, making it an effective way to treat addiction. But withdrawal from methadone, if it is taken away suddenly, is a worse experience than withdrawal from heroin. For that reason, according to a new study by researchers from the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, a collaboration of The Miriam Hospital and Brown University, many addicts are reluctant to undergo methadone treatment. Why are addicts so worried about methadone withdrawal? Because prison systems in many parts of the United States do not provide methadone treatment. “Inmates are aware of these correctional methadone withdrawal policies and know they’ll be forced to undergo this painful process again if they are re-arrested," said senior author Dr. Josiah D. Rich. "It’s not surprising that many reported that if they were incarcerated and forced into withdrawal, they would rather withdraw from heroin than from methadone, because it is over in days rather than weeks or longer.” The research appears in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.Read more