Health Topic

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Treatment

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a serious problem. Treatments include medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and counseling.

Reviewed Reviewed by a registered pharmacistGeneral information

Also called: Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) · Opioid abuse and addiction treatment

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Treatment

Opioids, sometimes called narcotics, are a type of drug. They include strong prescription pain relievers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and tramadol. The illegal drug heroin is also an opioid.

A health care provider may give you a prescription opioid to reduce pain after you have had a major injury or surgery. You may get them if you have severe pain from health conditions like cancer. Some health care providers prescribe them for chronic pain.

Prescription opioids used for pain relief are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by your provider. However, opioid use disorder (OUD) is still a possible risk.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) means that you have a problematic pattern of using opioids. The pattern causes a lot of distress and impairment (meaning that it causes problems in and interferes with your daily life). Instead of OUD, sometimes people use the terms "opioid dependence" and "opioid addiction." Dependence means feeling withdrawal symptoms when not taking the drug. Addiction is a chronic brain disease that causes a person to compulsively seek out drugs, even though they cause harm.

Treatments for OUD include:

  • Medicines; this kind of treatment is known as medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD)
  • Counseling and behavioral therapies
  • Residential and hospital-based treatment

The medicines used in MOUD are methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone:

  • Methadone, buprenorphine, and lofexidine, which can decrease withdrawal symptoms and cravings. They work by acting on one or another of the targets in the brain that opioids act on. But these medicines are different because they do not make you feel high. Some people worry that if they take methadone or buprenorphine, it means that they are substituting one addiction for another. But it is not; these medicines are a treatment. They restore balance to the parts of the brain affected by addiction. This allows your brain to heal while you work toward recovery. You may safely take these medicines for months, years, or even a lifetime. If you want to stop taking them, do not do it on your own. You should contact your provider first, and together you can work out a plan for stopping.
  • Naltrexone works differently than methadone and buprenorphine. It does not help you with withdrawal symptoms or cravings. Instead, it takes away the high that you would normally get when you take opioids. Because of this, you would take naltrexone to prevent a relapse, not to try to get off opioids. You have to be off opioids for at least 7-10 days before you can take naltrexone. Otherwise you could have bad withdrawal symptoms.
  • A combination drug that includes buprenorphine and naloxone. Naloxone is a drug to treat an opioid overdose. If you take it along with buprenorphine, you will be less likely to misuse the buprenorphine.

Counseling for OUD can help you:

  • Change your attitudes and behaviors related to drug use
  • Build healthy life skills
  • Stick with other forms of treatment, such as medicines

There are different types of counseling for OUD, including:

  • Individual counseling, which may include setting goals, talking about setbacks, and celebrating progress. You may also talk about legal concerns and family problems. Counseling often includes specific behavioral therapies, such as
  • Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps you recognize and stop negative patterns of thinking and behavior. It teaches you coping skills, including how to manage stress and change the thoughts that cause you to want to misuse opioids.
  • Motivational enhancement therapy, which helps you build up motivation to stick with your treatment plan.
  • Contingency management, which focuses on giving you incentives for positive behaviors such as staying off the opioids.

Counselors can also refer you to other resources that you might need, such as:

  • Peer support groups, including 12-step programs like Narcotics Anonymous
  • Spiritual and faith-based groups
  • HIV testing and hepatitis screening
  • Case or care management
  • Employment or educational supports
  • Organizations that help you find housing or transportation

Residential programs combine housing and treatment services. You are living with your peers, and you can support each other to stay in recovery. Inpatient hospital-based programs combine health care and OUD treatment services for people with medical problems. Hospitals may also offer intensive outpatient treatment. All these types of treatments are very structured, and usually include several different kinds of counseling and behavioral therapies. They usually also include MOUD.

It sits within Substance Use and Disorders.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Treatment

63 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Related Issues

Genetics

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Opioid-Related Disorders, Opioid-Related Disorders. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Treatment, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.