JCM Webinar | From Stigma to Stabilisation: Sodium Oxybate and Methadone as Complementary Agonist Treatments
the chair
JCM Webinar
From Stigma to Stabilisation: Sodium Oxybate and Methadone as Complementary Agonist Treatments
Agonist treatments have long occupied a controversial position in addiction medicine. Methadone is still portrayed as replacing one drug with another, while sodium oxybate is often conflated with illicit gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and judged primarily through its misuse potential. These perceptions obscure a fundamental clinical distinction: the molecule alone does not determine whether its use is addictive or therapeutic. Dose, formulation, indication, medical supervision and, above all, the stabilisation achieved by treatment are decisive.
This 75-minute JCM webinar will examine sodium oxybate and methadone as two pharmacologically distinct but clinically complementary agonist treatments. Prof. Dr. Icro Maremmani will discuss why sodium oxybate has become a 'demonised medication', how its history parallels that of methadone, and why the two treatments can be co-administered in carefully selected and closely monitored patients. Dr. Angelo Giovanni Icro Maremmani will present the rationale, methods and clinical findings of the JCM Cover Article on sodium oxybate co-maintenance during methadone treatment in patients with co-occurring alcohol and heroin use disorders.
Dr. Filippo Della Rocca will broaden the discussion to agonist treatment as a general therapeutic principle in severe alcohol use disorder, including the hypothesis that opioid agonist strategies might warrant controlled investigation in carefully selected, treatment-refractory patients without heroin use disorder. The webinar will distinguish evidence from hypothesis while asking whether addiction medicine has allowed stigma to restrict the development of effective long-term treatments.
Date: 23 November 2026
Time: 9 AM CET
Webinar ID: 840 1138 2750
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Meet Our Chair
VP Dole Research Group, PISA-School of Addiction Medicine, G. De Lisio Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Pisa, Italy; UniCamillus, International Medical University in Rome;Icro Maremmani is a psychiatrist and internationally recognised specialist in addiction medicine. He is Director of the Second-Level Master's Degree in Addiction Medicine at UniCamillus. His clinical and research work focuses on opioid agonist treatment, dual disorder and the long-term stabilisation of severe substance use disorders.
Meet Our Speakers
Department of Psychiatry, UniCamillus, International Medical University in Rome, Rome, Italy; VP Dole Research Group, PISA-School of Addiction Medicine, G. De Lisio Institute of Behavioural Sciences;Angelo Giovanni Icro Maremmani, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UniCamillus. His research and teaching focus on addiction medicine, clinical psychopharmacology and dual disorders. He is the first author of the JCM Cover Article discussed in this webinar.
Addiction Unit, Department of Mental Health and Addictions, ASL5 Liguria NHS, La Spezia, Italy; VP Dole Research Group, PISA-School of Addiction Medicine, G. De Lisio Institute of Behavioural Sciences;Filippo Della Rocca, MD, is a psychiatrist working in the Department of Mental Health and Addictions at ASL5 Liguria NHS. His clinical and research interests include severe substance use disorders, opioid agonist treatment and the management of polysubstance use. He contributed to the clinical investigation and data curation of the JCM Cover Study.
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Certificates of attendance will be delivered to those who attend the live webinar.
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