Tell My Clinic I Read Out of Methadone

About people know what a methadone clinic is, thanks to widespread representation in movies and Television set. However, if y'all ask the average person how one of these clinics actually operates or what it's meant to exercise, you're probable to get a blank stare. Methadone clinics are a bit of a mystery for people who haven't been to one, and that can be nerve-wracking when you lot or someone you care about is considering this form of addiction treatment.

You've got a lot of important questions nearly methadone handling, and this guide will give you the agreement you need to cull the right program with confidence.

What Is Methadone?

Methadone is a long-acting analgesic in the opioid family. It is chemically related to opium only is completely synthetic. A group of German scientists showtime fabricated methadone in the 1930s. Initially, they were searching for a painkiller that did non have the extremely addictive properties of morphine. The ii scientists, Max Bockmhl and Gustav Ehrhart, synthesized a substance they chosen polamidon. During World War II, a shortage of painkillers pressed a unlike team of scientists to start synthesizing the substance, and they changed the name to methadone.

Methadone came to the United states of america in 1947, equally a pain reliever useful in treating multiple conditions. Over time, information technology became clear that methadone was useful in treating addictions to narcotics. With a surge in heroin addiction in the 1960s, researchers were scrambling to find a substance that would get rid of or at least reduce cravings for drugs as well as symptoms of withdrawal. Methadone was the ideal candidate.

Methadone reduces the painful symptoms of withdrawal and helps suppress cravings for drugs for 24 to 36 hours, all without providing whatever feelings of euphoria. This medication makes recovery more than achievable and is generally taken for at least a year. This type of treatment is called methadone maintenance.

In 1971, the federal government formalized the recognition of methadone equally an effective recovery assistant by developing regulations governing its use in treating addiction to heroin. Those regulations stayed essentially the same until 2001, when they were modified so doctors and certain other wellness care professionals could provide methadone to patients more consistently. Today, methadone maintenance treatment is considered the gold standard for opioid addiction treatment.

How Does Methadone Work?

Methadone is an opioid agonist that works past attaching to the brain's opioid receptors. It'south a synthetic opioid that activates opioid receptors slower than other opioids do, easing withdrawal symptoms without creating a euphoric feeling in people with an opioid use disorder. It also alters how the brain and nervous system react to pain, reducing the pain that people feel during opioid withdrawal. Methadone also blocks the furnishings of other opioids, discouraging people from using opioids to feel "high."

What Is a Methadone Clinic Used For?

A methadone clinic is a facility where people seeking opioid addiction handling tin can go to receive medication that will help them begin their journey to addiction recovery. Methadone clinics are more accurately called substance use disorder services clinics (SUDS) since they are likewise equipped to manipulate naltrexone and Suboxone®. However, since methadone is the principal medication dispensed, the two terms have go synonymous to about people.

All methadone clinic programs must be certified by the Substance Corruption and Mental Wellness Services Administration (SAMHSA) and registered with the Drug Enforcement Bureau (DEA). As of 2018, at that place were about i,500 methadone clinics in the U.Southward., most of which were full-bodied in New York, New Bailiwick of jersey, Maryland and California.

There are two types of methadone clinics — public and private. Public clinics are less expensive, just limited government funding means people usually end up on a waiting list. With an outcome as serious every bit addiction, having to wait days or weeks to begin treatment profoundly lessens the chances of a person really returning, and increases the likelihood that they won't go the help they demand.

Private clinics are undoubtedly more expensive, but the benefits are also clear. In that location is often no waiting listing at a private dispensary, and if there is one, it will be brusque. The care provided at private clinics is too markedly ameliorate since staff and medical professionals are far less likely to exist overworked.

What Are the Requirements for a Methadone Dispensary?

To gain the certification necessary to dispense methadone and other treatments, clinics must meet specific federal requirements. All clinics accept to offer a minimum range of services, including:

• Initial exam: Every patient must receive a complete concrete by a medico or a wellness care professional person under a program medico's supervision. Clinics must provide full documentation.
• Services for pregnancy: Clinics must take policies and procedures in place to address the unique needs of pregnant patients. The clinic must be able to provide prenatal care or exist able to refer the patient to an appropriate service.
• Assessments: Patients accepted for a treatment programme must receive an initial assessment including a treatment plan, also as subsequent periodic assessments throughout handling.
• Counseling: Patients must receive adequate substance apply counseling from a professional qualified to appraise social and psychological backgrounds, contribute to the treatment plan and monitor the progress of patients.
• Drug testing: Clinics must carry at least viii random drug tests per year, per patient. If the patient is in a short-term detox handling, they must receive an initial drug test. Long-term detoxification requires an initial drug examination as well equally randomized monthly tests.

These are the bare minimum of services a methadone dispensary must provide. The all-time clinics become above and across these requirements by offering multiple types of counseling and holistic services.

How Do Methadone Clinics Piece of work?

Individuals struggling with an opioid habit can walk into a methadone clinic and request to be treated. Once the clinic has established the individual's eligibility through various initial screening exams and interviews, patients can receive methadone on-site. Some programs allow patients to take their medication abode for self-administration one time they have earned the privilege.

The medication is dispensed past an appropriate practitioner who is licensed by the country or federal government to give out opioids. Pharmacists, nurse practitioners and registered nurses can likewise dispense methadone and other opioid treatment medications if a licensed practitioner supervises them.

When someone enters a methadone treatment programme, they receive a daily dose of methadone and must participate in counseling of some kind. Methadone treatment at a dispensary is often a long-term commitment.

Who Is Eligible for Methadone Handling?

Methadone maintenance treatment is only an option for people who encounter specific requirements. To run into land and federal requirements for this form of handling, a person must be physically addicted to opioids at the fourth dimension treatment is requested. They must also have struggled with the addiction for at to the lowest degree a twelvemonth earlier requesting the treatment.

You tin prove your opiate habit has lasted at to the lowest degree a year with a medico'due south letter or records of any past treatment you lot have received. If you cannot get that, you can have a family member depict upwards a notarized certification of your opioid use. A history of being arrested for opioid use or possession can also qualify you, as tin a confirmation from a parole or probation officer. You can even ask a member of the clergy to give y'all a notarized letter of the alphabet if you're out of other options or that's easier than request a family member.

There are exceptions to the one-year rule. If you are pregnant, accept been released from prison house within the last six months, or accept participated in a methadone treatment programme in the past, you lot don't need to prove one year of addiction.

For the well-nigh part, methadone clinics don't serve individuals nether the historic period of xviii. Because methadone is an opioid, its effects may be more than significant on brains that haven't matured yet, and other treatments are preferred when possible. Even so, minors can get eligible for methadone if they can provide two things:

• Documentation of two detoxification or treatment attempts within the past 12 months
• Written consent of a parent or guardian

Methadone maintenance treatment is mostly reserved for people with a severe or long-term addiction, for whom other types of treatment have non been completely effective.

Common Reasons Why People Utilise Methadone Clinics

Methadone clinics are becoming available to more and more people across the country due to the opioid crisis. From 2014 to 2018, 254 new clinics were established. The people attending these programs are struggling with addictions to the following common opioids.

1. Codeine

Many people are surprised to find that codeine, the active ingredient in some cough syrups, can be dangerous. When ingested, codeine is broken down in the liver, where it reverts to morphine. There's a good reason why coughing medicine is locked up behind the counter — the sleepy feelings of pleasure that an excessive measure out provides tin can pb to unexpected addiction.

The nearly mutual form of codeine use is mixing cough syrup with Sprite to make what's known equally "lean." This concoction, which can too contain alcohol, is a staple of rap civilization. Creative person Mac Miller, who died of a drug overdose in 2018, was open near his struggle with codeine.

two. Oxymorphone

Oxymorphone is a schedule Ii opioid analgesic. The original drug was approved for medical use in 1959 but only came in injectable and suppository forms. In 2006, the Nutrient and Drug Administration (FDA) canonical immediate-release and extended-release tablets to exist taken orally. The trade name for these tablets is Opana, and the release of the tablet format coincided with a spring in addiction rates. From 2010 to 2011, the number of emergency department visits triggered by oxymorphone use skyrocketed from 4,599 to 12,122.

3. Hydrocodone and Oxycodone

These closely-related medications have been in the top x drugs involved in overdose deaths from 2011 to 2016, and go along to be some of the most common sources of addiction. Considering physicians prescribe these drugs, many people don't fully empathize their addictive potential.

4. Morphine

Morphine addiction is non terribly mutual considering information technology's non readily available in pill format, and is heavily safeguarded in medical settings. For the most office, morphine is delivered via an intravenous drip. Because it is easier for medical professionals to obtain, doctors and nurses are the about likely to develop a morphine habit. Like other opioids, misuse of morphine tin rapidly screw out of control.

5. Heroin

Heroin is one of the most potent and deadly opioid drugs in the world, as well every bit ane of the nigh addictive. Notably, 86% of heroin users in urban areas report that they kickoff used prescription opioids earlier moving on to heroin. Abusing it leads to physical deterioration and serious health problems in a matter of weeks. Withdrawals from heroin are extremely severe, making it even more challenging to quit successfully.

Benefits of Methadone Clinics

What does a methadone dispensary exercise for recovery? No matter the specific drug, methadone maintenance treatment is highly effective in combating addiction. One of the master reasons people choose methadone is its cost-effectiveness and convenience equally compared to residential handling. With methadone maintenance, you just pay for the medication and services, not for accommodations.

Possibly the biggest do good of methadone clinics is the time efficiency. Rather than putting life on pause for weeks or months to receive handling at a residential heart, patients receiving methadone tin continue to alive their lives with minimal suspension. Equally long every bit you tin can schedule fourth dimension for counseling and go once a day, every day, to receive your medication, you can successfully participate in a methadone maintenance program.

Taking what you lot're learning in your counseling sessions and applying it to life every bit y'all go helps you lot learn more effectively. It also gives you and your counselor the chance to piece of work out problems as they arise, rather than all of a sudden facing a slew of unexpected issues at once upon leaving residential treatment. Overall, methadone clinics provide a way to brainstorm and sustain recovery while remaining independent.

Signs That Your Addiction Needs Help

Addiction doesn't usually develop overnight, and it tin exist difficult to spot whether your utilize of a medication or drug has evolved into dependence. At that place are several signs to scout out for if yous suspect you may exist struggling with addiction, and not all of them are obvious. Hither's a list of the virtually common signs you need to seek treatment:

• Inability to end using: By the time virtually people seek treatment, they take tried and failed to cease using a substance on their ain at least in one case. You don't need to make a big proclamation that you are quitting for this to apply to you lot. If yous find yourself internally maxim "not today" and then using the substance anyway, you may be addicted.
• Use despite health bug: Well-nigh people can feel it when their drug or booze apply has go a problem considering the continued use gives rise to health issues. If someone keeps drinking alcohol despite feeling tired and sick every day, or keeps taking also many painkillers despite problematic constipation, addiction is a likely explanation.
• Problem use: Many addictions begin with using the drug to avert dealing with problems in life. If instead of processing your emotions and taking steps to improve a situation, you lot plow to drugs, your take chances of addiction skyrockets.
• Obsession: People with an addiction spend inordinate amounts of fourth dimension thinking about their drug of use. This tendency is at its worst when someone is nearing the end of their supply and becomes frantic virtually where and how to go more.
• Risk-taking: If you accept ever considered entering a risky or illegal situation to obtain your drug of use, you lot're a good candidate for treatment. With illicit drugs like heroin, take a chance-taking behavior is already there at the outset. Just thinking near getting opioids on the street when you previously had a prescription is exactly the blazon of take chances-taking addiction encourages.
• Increased dosages: All drugs of use carry the issue of tolerance. When you discover yourself needing one more than drink, smoke or pill to achieve the aforementioned high, it'south considering your body is developing a dependence.

All these signs are accompanied past things like loss of involvement in social activities and hobbies, reduced functioning at piece of work or school and a full general feeling like you're not yourself anymore. Past its nature, addiction tells you information technology's non a problem, that this is merely a stage and you lot'll get over it eventually. Merely if yous come across whatsoever of these signs in your life, it'due south time to give serious consideration to addiction treatment.

What Happens at a Methadone Clinic?

If you're non sure how to become into a methadone dispensary or how their maintenance programs work, you lot're not alone. The process can be difficult to get data on, merely it's straightforward once you have chosen a program. About programs operate on similar parameters, and you can break the procedure down into three phases.

1. Assessment and Induction

When you select a methadone clinic for treatment, the commencement phase involves a significant amount of paperwork and discussions with medical professionals. On your beginning visit, you will receive a complete concrete cess to gauge your general health and the effects your addiction has had on your body. The drug screen will help confirm that y'all are in an appropriate country of withdrawal to begin methadone handling and that you have not left any other drugs out of your history. Basic medical factors like height and weight also play into the initial dosage your md prescribes.

You will likewise receive a consultation with an intake counselor to constitute your history of addiction to opioids. This process can be a chip uncomfortable if you're not used to speaking openly about your addiction, just it'southward of import to be straightforward and true with your counselor. If you are abusing multiple drugs or have mental disorders along with your habit, the intake advisor needs to know so they can help tailor the plan and counseling services to your private needs.

Depending on the results of your assessments, your physician will determine whether or not to allow you to begin taking methadone the same mean solar day. Before existence given your first dose, you will review the program policies and procedures. You'll need to sign a consent class stating that you voluntarily concord to handling and are willing to comply with conduct requirements.

2. Stabilization

The first few days of switching over from opioids to methadone are chosen stabilization. You will start off with a low dose of methadone, between x and 30 milligrams. The medication comes in the form of a pill, dissolvable tablet or oral solution.

For three days, you'll receive the same dose to permit the medication to build upwards in your organization. After iii days, it's time for you and your doctor to evaluate how well the methadone is working. If you're withal experiencing withdrawal symptoms, your medico will increase the dose once every three days until y'all attain the maintenance level that works best for you.

3. Maintenance

Once you and your doctor have found your ideal maintenance dose, yous continue to take it daily until you can safely cease opioids completely. Clinics offering take-habitation privileges to patients who demonstrate adequate commitment and progress during treatment. For the offset xc days, yous will have to visit the clinic daily to receive your methadone, except for one accept-abode dose per week to cover days when the dispensary is closed. Equally you lot progress in treatment and meet certain criteria, you volition become eligible for larger take-home supplies.

The maximum supply of have-home medication outlined past federal constabulary is one month, but many states implement more stringent restrictions. The maximum supply tin only be obtained afterward 2 years of continuous, successful treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions About Methadone Clinics

It'due south perfectly normal to be a little nervous nearly starting a methadone plan, and you probably take several more questions almost the process. Hither are five of the most common questions related to starting and continuing methadone maintenance handling:

ane. What Should I Bring to My Outset Appointment?

Y'all'll need to bring valid photo identification, any prescriptions y'all are currently taking, an insurance carte du jour if you programme on using it to pay for treatment and payment for the kickoff day'due south medication fee. Significant patients should bring proof of pregnancy, and in some cases, written permission from their OB/GYN is required.

2. What If Methadone Doesn't Work for Me?

Unlike other types of treatment, methadone works the aforementioned way for everyone. As long as you aren't taking whatsoever medications or drugs that have negative reactions with methadone, you lot can rest bodacious that yous will experience relief from withdrawal symptoms once your maintenance dose is established.

three. How Long Do I Have to Accept Methadone?

Methadone maintenance is different for everyone, but the minimum recommended length of treatment is 12 months. Many individuals continue to do good from methadone for years. Information technology is possible to safely withdraw from methadone, as long as y'all work with your medico to lower your dosage slowly.

4. Is It Rubber to Accept Methadone While Significant or Breastfeeding?

Yep, methadone is safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Opting for methadone treatment is much safer for your babe than continuing opioid employ or going through withdrawals. Minimal amounts of methadone may make it through into breast milk, but the benefits of the medication outweigh the very minimal risks. Methadone tin can reduce the likelihood of withdrawal symptoms similar contractions and premature labor, and prenatal intendance can reduce potential pregnancy and birth complications from methadone treatment.

5. Will Methadone Show up on a Drug Screen?

Unless your employer specifically tests for methadone, it volition not show up on a drug exam for opioids similar heroin or morphine. Methadone is a legal medication, and as long equally you are following the guidelines of your plan, you lot won't have any problem with drug screens.

Forms of Treatment at a Methadone Clinic

Addiction recovery is a little bit different for everyone, and people demand options to receive the best private handling. Most methadone clinics offering a few forms of treatment that can do good patients. The core of methadone clinic intendance is, of grade, medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

1. Medication-Assisted Handling

When a person uses opioids, the drugs cantankerous the claret-brain barrier and adhere to receptors in the encephalon. This triggers a sudden release of neurotransmitters that produce the euphoria associated with an opioid loftier. The loftier interacts with the encephalon's reward system and reinforces the beliefs that produced the initial flood of feel-adept chemicals. Every time someone uses opioids, the brain gets a little slower and less efficient at producing its own advantage chemicals.

Over time, the brain stops making these chemicals birthday, because it gets them from the opioids. Yet, this ways when opioids are removed, the encephalon tin't function properly and throws a person's system into withdrawal.

Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction uses methadone or buprenorphine to stop withdrawals earlier symptoms get bad enough to brand a person requite in and start using opioids once more. These 2 medications are partial opioid agonists, which ways they bind to the same receptors as drugs similar heroin and prescription painkillers. But instead of making someone feel loftier, they only assistance people feel normal enough to alive their lives without extreme withdrawal symptoms.

Methadone clinic MAT also focuses heavily on counseling and behavioral therapy to take a whole-patient approach.

2. Other Treatments Offered at Methadone Clinics

The types of other treatment offered by methadone clinics tin vary. These three are the most mutual to encounter as part of an MAT program:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): Drug use and habit are associated with specific behaviors and idea processes that drive a person to use drugs to cope. CBT helps people change ingrained behaviors and learn healthy coping skills.
• Medical detox: Some people's addictions are so severe that withdrawal causes intense, dangerous physical reactions. With medical detoxification, the patient remains nether the close supervision of medical professionals until withdrawal is over.
• Group counseling: In addition to individual sessions, the social aspect of group counseling can benefit people in recovery. Being able to talk about bug with other people who understand your situation can be immensely freeing.

How to Use Methadone Safely

While methadone treats addiction, it is also an addictive substance. Healthcare providers must carefully and precisely administer methadone. They manage this dosage past periodically adjusting information technology when needed every bit office of the consecration process.

In some cases, individuals who have consistently followed state and federal guidelines may be immune to accept methadone at dwelling house between program visits without straight supervision. If yous are taking methadone at habitation, make certain that you only take the amount your healthcare provider has prescribed to you, and take it at the right times. Even if you miss a dose or experience that the methadone is not working, never take more than your provider has prescribed or share methadone with others. You lot should avoid drinking booze while taking methadone, every bit the combination can increase the risk of an overdose.

It's important that you carefully monitor how the medication affects yous before driving or operating mechanism. If it causes you to experience drowsy, avoid these activities.

Yous should store methadone in a place that's room temperature and away from light where pets and children cannot achieve it. Since overdose tin occur, it'south of import to call 911 if you think you have taken too much methadone or if you experience any severe side effects.

Common Side Effects of Taking Methadone

Although methadone is a less stiff drug than heroin or prescription painkillers, information technology is still an opioid agonist. There may be side effects to MAT with methadone, including:

• Drowsiness
• Dry out oral fissure
• Memory of urine
• Lightheadedness
• Gastrointestinal distress

In some patients, methadone can cause psychological side furnishings like anxiety, delusions and paranoia. Indisposition is a adequately common symptom every bit well, though information technology tends to get amend over time. In full general, these side effects are significantly less unpleasant than going through opioid withdrawals. However, some people can have more severe side furnishings that interfere with the efficacy of the medication, such as:

• Heavy sweating
• Nausea or vomiting
• Restlessness
• Slowed breathing
• Depressed respiratory function
• Irregular heartbeat

If you lot feel any of these rarer symptoms while taking methadone, tell your md correct away. It may exist a sign that your dose is besides loftier or that another course of treatment may be meliorate for you.

To minimize the side furnishings of methadone, you must be open almost any other medications you lot are taking and to avoid alcohol. Mixing methadone with other substances can exist dangerous, and rob the medication of its power to assist yous.

Fugitive Relapse During and Subsequently Treatment

The temptation of relapse is something everyone struggles with during recovery. Even when handling is going well and methadone is minimizing withdrawal symptoms, you may have a difficult fourth dimension with cravings. Keep the following tips in listen:

• Practice mindfulness and be aware of your emotional state
• Minimize free time
• Invest in building healthy relationships
• Identify your triggers
• Build a back up network
• Proceed an emergency contact list

Preventing relapse is easier when you know its mental and emotional signs. If you're feeling moody, wanting to isolate yourself or struggling with anger, you are at college adventure of turning dorsum to opioids. Mental signs include glamorizing your past drug use or fantasizing about using drugs once again.

1 of the disquisitional elements of relapse prevention is to keep physically good for you. Addiction takes a toll on the trunk, which can, in turn, bear on your mind and emotions. Focusing on the three near significant elements of health can strengthen your trunk and resolve for recovery:

• Nutrition: People struggling with addiction don't commonly pay much attention to nutrition, which tin make recovery harder. Good diet is linked to better mental health, which tin strengthen your resistance to relapse.
• Exercise: Studies accept suggested that practise combined with other treatments can have a pregnant positive impact on relapse rates. In addition to keeping yous physically healthy, exercise helps continue you lot occupied and distracted from cravings.
• Sleep: American adults have a difficult time getting enough sleep altogether, and addiction makes it even more challenging to go a good dark'due south slumber. Nevertheless, doing what you lot can to improve your sleep quality and duration volition make it easier to stay emotionally salubrious throughout recovery.

During treatment, yous and your advisor will piece of work together to create a relapse prevention plan. The strategies you learn to cope with cravings are lifelong tools you lot can apply throughout your new, sober life.

Have Methadone Clinics Adult a Bad Reputation?

Many people believe methadone clinics increase criminal offense and exist to claw people on drugs. The most pervasive misconception people take is that methadone handling merely means swapping out one habit for some other. This incredibly harmful perception is rooted in the fact that methadone is an opioid, simply does not accept into account the stark differences in potency.

People don't usually sympathise what a methadone clinic is for. Methadone does not get anyone high when it is used as directed by a doctor, and it greatly increases the chances of sustaining addiction recovery. While methadone treatment clinics may have received a bad reputation, they are really positive resources for individuals and communities.

Throughout methadone dispensary history, there has been ane constant — they are there to help people overcome their addictions. The stigma effectually methadone clinics is part of a greater outcome. People tend to view addiction as a personal or moral failure, and believe methadone maintenance treatment is a scam in some way. This attitude is harmful to people in recovery, and it affects a huge portion of people seeking treatment. One study estimates that 78% of people undergoing methadone maintenance treatment have experienced stigma.

The lesser line is MAT with methadone works. That's why it has been in utilise for decades, and why more than and more people are flocking to methadone clinics every bit a response to America's opioid crunch.

Finding and Choosing the Right Methadone Dispensary

Starting the journeying to methadone clinic recovery starts with finding the correct plan. There are many factors to consider, but these three can help you narrow downward your options quickly and with confidence:

• Proximity: In one case you enter a handling programme, you'll be attending the clinic every solar day. Starting off with a query like "where is the nearest methadone clinic" will show y'all the locations most convenient to you.
• Experience: Your recovery journey should be guided past professionals you trust. Choosing an established clinic increases your chances of getting the best care possible.
• Individualization: Some methadone clinics offer improve flexibility in treatment plans than others. If a dispensary doesn't have options to fit the unlike needs of individuals, y'all likely won't receive the most constructive care from that provider.

Another consideration in choosing a methadone clinic is how y'all'll pay. Many clinics accept Medicaid, and some commercial insurance plans will encompass methadone maintenance treatment. Be certain to contact your prospective treatment facility to find out more about their payment and insurance policies.

Brand Recovery a Reality With MedMark Treatment Centers

If you're ready to find out more almost starting your recovery from opioid addiction, MedMark is here to help. We have clinics located in v states, all staffed with empathetic staff and licensed medical professionals. Our addiction treatment services are designed to provide all the support and educational activity you lot need to build good for you coping skills and get your life back.

MedMark facilities are country-licensed and federally certified. We are as well accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). This reflects our dedication to continuously welcome feedback, ameliorate our services and meet or exceed industry care standards while helping the customs. Contact u.s. today to acquire more than about MedMark, find a methadone clinic near yous and learn more than almost the next steps on your new path to recovery from opioid habit.

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Source: https://medmark.com/resources/comprehensive-guide-to-methadone-clinics/

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