About Alcohol and Drug Addiction Disease Research

The effects of alcohol and drug addiction on the U.S. economy is substantial. Combined costs for health care, criminal processing and worker productivity are more than $500 billion a year. So far, solutions to these problems have seen inconsistent results. Research developments within these areas are exploring more integrated models of behavioral and physiological approaches to treatment.

Identification

• Alcohol and drug addictions are disorders that become increasingly worse over time. The physiological and behavior components of addiction work together in a vicious cycle, with one picking up where the other leaves off. Even after long periods of total abstinence, the possibility for relapse is an ever looming concern. As a result, repeated treatment attempts are not uncommon. Treatment approaches work to decrease or eliminate substance abuse as a first step toward achieving long term abstinence.

Process

• The most debilitating effects of drug and alcohol addiction occur in the brain's chemical makeup. Resulting damage has left the brain unable to coordinate mental and physical processes. Oftentimes, a person must undergo detoxification to rid the system of all traces of drugs and alcohol. From there, treatment objectives focus on reducing withdrawal symptoms. This may include a combined approach which uses medication and behavioral therapies. Once stabilized, the patient is able to work on a relapse prevention plan.

Considerations

• Alcohol and drug addiction research specialists have long viewed addiction as a chronic, progressive and recurring disease. The body's increased dependency on drugs results in permanent changes, which make it all the more susceptible to ongoing exposure. As each person's body is different, research developments have only been able to focus on groups which have specific characteristics, like race, gender and age. Because of this, a universal cure-all treatment is, as of yet, unobtainable.

Developments

• The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) was created by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to provide a testing ground in which results from various studies can be applied on a universal scale. The CTN is currently working on a number of science-based approaches which include operant therapies, motivational enhancement therapies and cognitive behavioral therapies. Experimental results obtained from smaller-scale studies are applied within community treatment settings.

Theories/Speculation

• The American Psychological Association has conducted extensive research on how decision-making processes within the brain are hampered by continued drug/alcohol use. The effects of continued use on the cognitive processes within the brain lead researchers to wonder what role decision-making plays in a person's ability to remain abstinent. Damage to these areas may account for why some treatments work on certain types of people, and not on others. Understanding these effects may help toward devising more effective treatment plans that address individual vulnerabilities within the recovery process.