Buprenorphine is the first medication available from the doctor's office for treating addiction to opioids, which are narcotic painkillers and heroin. Methadone, the only other drug used to treat opioid addiction, is available only at methadone clinics. "People who would never come into a methadone clinic, because it is both degrading an stigmatized, will come to a physician's office. They could have a cold for all anyone knows, says Charles Schuster, head of the Substance Abuse Clinical Research Division at Wayne State University .