Treatment Approaches to Drug Addicition

Drug addiction involves a physical and mental dependence on a substance. It is often accompanied by cravings and efforts to seek out the drug, which may disrupt a person's lifestyle, employment or family and social life. Patients with drug addiction have a variety of treatment options. A treatment plan for an individual often incorporates several treatment methods for the best chance of success.

Detoxification

• A person may experience physical symptoms of withdrawal.

  The first step in treatment for drug addiction often involves a detoxification process. The person stops using the drug and biological processes remove the drug from the body. The body's dependence on the drug sometimes results in "withdrawal" when the drug is removed. Withdrawal is the body's response to the absence of the drug, and can include symptoms such as anxiety, nausea or even heart attack and death. Health care personnel monitor the detoxification process and diminish symptoms of withdrawal with medications or by gradual weening from the drug (such as the patch used to treat nicotine addiction).

Medication

• People with an addiction may take medications to decrease their dependence on the drug, decrease cravings for the drug or reform the body's natural biochemistry. These medications affect areas of the brain that control what the body needs and desires, often by blocking receptor sites for the drug. There are medications available to treat addictions to nicotine, heroin, morphine and alcohol. Medications to treat addiction to marijuana and cocaine are still under development.

Behavioral Therapy

• Group therapy uses social support to help prevent relapse.

  Behavioral therapy seeks to alter the person's behavior to decrease the psychological dependence on the drug. Behavioral therapy can take many different forms. Cognitive-behavioral therapy works to change how the person thinks about the drug and reacts to cravings. Therapists help the person identify triggers of craving and ways to decrease them. Family group therapy examines the dynamics of the family unit, identifying influences for drug addiction or possible ways that the family enables the addiction. Motivational interviewing seeks to improve the individual's self-efficacy and self-confidence, and his ability to become drug-free.

Residential Treatment

• In residential treatment programs, a person addicted to a drug stays at a facility for a certain length of time, altering the environmental and social influences that he experienced at home. The person receives therapy at the residential site, such as group therapy and individual counseling. A special type of residential treatment program, a "therapeutic community," involves remaining at the site for up to a year and using the influence of the community setting to create a new lifestyle for the patient.