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What Is the Biological Approach to Drug Treatment?

Drug addiction is a tough problem to beat and if left untreated, it can devastate the life of the drug user. Every treatment program is different. While some focus on the psychological process of recovery and fellowship among recovering addicts, others stress the biological aspect of addiction and recovery. For those that take a biological approach, there are three main areas of focus. These include the detoxification process; medication for psychological symptoms and relapse prevention; and nutrition.

  1. Detoxification

    • One part of substance abuse treatment that is entirely biologically based is the detoxification process. Detoxification occurs after a person stops taking drugs, when the body is clearing out the drugs it has been depending on. This process causes withdrawal symptoms, which can be severe and even life-threatening for some. Many drug treatment programs offer help through the detoxification process. This can include counseling throughout the process or even rapid detoxification. Rapid detoxification is often performed for people who are coming off opiates or narcotics, since these drugs cause very serious withdrawal symptoms when stopped. This process cuts down the detoxification from days of agony to a few hours under anesthesia.

    Medication

    • Many drug treatment professionals understand that many people with addictions have psychological problems like depression and anxiety. For some, the anxiety and depression are side effects of drug use while for others, these problems may be a partial cause of drug use. The biological approach to drug treatment involves medication to reduce these problems and make recovery a little easier.
      Medication also can be used to prevent relapse in some patients. These drugs work by blocking brain receptors for the drug of abuse, causing unpleasant reactions when the drug is used. Antabuse is a drug often used to prevent relapse in recovering alcoholics. Antabuse keeps alcohol from being metabolized and makes the person ill if he ingests it. Naltrexone and Suboxone are used for opioid abusers because they block the action of the drug at receptor sites so that if the person uses those drugs she will not get much of an effect.

    Nutrition

    • Another biological component of some drug treatment programs is a focus on nutrition. Many people who enter treatment are undernourished due to a fast-paced lifestyle where personal care is not a high priority. Recovering addicts may be given a healthy diet and nutritional supplements to regain good health.

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