Maintenance Medication

Maintenance medication is essentially medication which is used to stabilize an illness or symptoms of an illness. Although technically this definition can include stabilizing a patient with a fracture, the term maintenance medication is used to refer to medical professionals dealing with an illness such as clinical depression or schizophrenia, or withdrawal from drugs, where after initial treatment, rather than continuing the therapy at a high level, the stabilization of a patient for a significant period of time may, in itself, help with the final cure. The actual treatment is sometimes called maintenance therapy.

In cases of clinical depression, maintenance medication was often used after electroconvulsive [Page 1050]therapy in order to help lessen the after-effects of the initial treatment and yet increase the rate of recovery from the time which might have been taken by use of anti-depressants. In a 1991 study of 101 schizophrenia patients by staff from the Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Buffalo, showed a relatively non-significant difference in relapse rates between those given maintenance medication and those only intermittently treated. This led to increased research on whether other forms of drugs could be used for more effective maintenance medication. By contrast, a 2006 study, concerning asthma, covered 3415 patients, and showed significant problems which occurred with maintenance medication. These largely hinged on patients self-medicating—taking the drugs when they felt they needed to—and also occasionally a worsening of the problem during the period of maintenance therapy. It also highlighted problems in mis-diagnosis leading to maintenance therapy becoming ineffective.

Maintenance medication is medication which is used to stabilize an illness or symptoms of an illness.

However with the increase in narcotics, a new important use of maintenance medication has been in treatment of people addicted to particular narcotics, whereby maintenance medication is used to reduce the withdrawal symptoms. This has proven to be effective, with detailed maintenance medication programs drawn up, and after the initial treatment, the patient is stabilised for as long a period of time as possible. This use of maintenance medication such as methadone, has been shown to be effective in many instances, and now much medical research is now being directed towards maintenance medication, with work on testing and trials of specific drugs which will help alleviate the relapse vulnerability of many patients.