MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Opioids are drugs that are prescribed to treat moderately severe or severe pain. Heroin, an illegal drug, is also an opioid. Opioid addiction is a brain disease where you have an overwhelming craving for the drug. You can't stop taking the drug despite the harm it may cause you. An important treatment for opioid addiction is called medication-assisted treatment or MAT. MAT is a whole-patient approach that combines medication to help you stop using opioids with counseling and behavioral therapy. Three common medications used to treat opioid addiction are methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. In the brain, each drug attaches to the same receptors on cells as the addictive opioids. Methadone activates the receptors, but it's a slower-acting drug than other opioids because it takes longer to reach the brain when used as prescribed. This reduces the high feeling and prevents withdrawal symptoms. Buprenorphine is a weaker drug than opioids such as fentanyl b...