Blanka Vavřinková, Tomáš Binder
The drug addiction was traditionally treated by total abstinence that is connected with relatively grave signs of withdrawal. Modern drug addiction treatment includes methods in which the street opiate of unknown strength or purity is replaced by opiate, which is pharmacologically defined and is administred under medical supervision. Methadone cumulates in the liver, spleen and lungs of the foetus. After interruption of the umbilical cord methadone is released from deposits in foetal organism. The higher the substitutional dosage at the mother is, the more intensive the withdrawal symptoms are at the infant. These symptoms can appear up to 2 or 4 weeks after _delivery. In the recent years partial agonist of opiate receptors - buprenorphine has been used for substitution. Subligual administering of 8 mg of buprenorphine corresponds to 60 mg of methadone. Buprenorphine passes through the placental barriere and is excreted to mothers milk. On the basis of experiments on animals we can expect that intensity of withdrawal symptoms might not be so strong as in methadone taking.