To the Editor: September is National Alcohol and Drug Recovery Month, but it has been overshadowed by the number of deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin. To state that addiction to heroin and opioid pain medications has reached alarming rates is an understatement. I know this only too well, having recently lost a daughter to addiction. The treatment options seem to be very limited. Methadone is described as the “gold standard” and is the most widely used medication. Going to a methadone clinic and taking a dose of methadone on a daily basis is something most addicts and their families are resigned to accept as the most viable treatment. A new medication, called buprenorphine (suboxone) is now being promoted and offered as a “less addictive” and more convenient medication that can be prescribed by a specially trained physician and does not need to be taken in a clinic setting. Buprenorphine has been described as a “breakthrough” treatment and not enough physicians have gone through the required training to prescribe it. Other than these two medications, most patients, physicians and treatment providers are unaware of any other options. In my search to see what more I could have done to save my daughter’s life, I came across a clinic in St. Louis that uses a medication called naltrexone. I was even more astounded to learn this medication was developed by the federal government and approved by the FDA in 1984! To learn what I could about this medication: I went to St. Louis and met a number of long-term heroin users who have done exceptionally well on this virtually unknown medication. Naltrexone is radically different from methadone and buprenorphine and is primarily used for patients who have been de-toxed from heroin to keep them from relapsing. The medication has a relatively poor compliance because many heroin addicts do not really want to give up their addiction. Therefore, this highly effective medication is reserved for motivated patients such as doctors, nurses and attorneys. The clinic in St. Louis has been successful by using some of the components of methadone clinics. Patients are required to come to the clinic three days a week, take the medication in the presence of a clinic staff member and attend counseling sessions one day each week. It is imperative that the state and federal agencies that fund the bulk of treatment offer patients and their families all treatment choices. It is past time that clinics stop offering only one type of treatment and ignore other treatment options. We do not have health clinics that treat hypertension and diabetes with medication alone, for example. Why should it be any different for heroin addicts? William F. Brna Monongahela

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