Drug Addiction Treatment
What are the principles of drug addiction treatment?
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Drug Addiction Treatment: No single treatment is appropriate for all individuals. Matching drug addiction treatment settings, interventions, and services to each individual's particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Treatment needs to be readily available. Because individuals who are addicted to drugs may be uncertain about entering drug addiction treatment, taking advantage of opportunities when they are ready for treatment is crucial. Potential treatment applicants can be lost if treatment is not immediately available or is not readily accessible.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of the individual, not just his or her drug use. To be effective, treatment must address the individual's drug use and any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: An individual's treatment and services plan must be assessed continually and modified as necessary to ensure that the plan meets the person's changing needs. An individual in drug addiction treatment may require varying combinations of services and treatment components during the course of treatment and recovery. In addition to counseling or psychotherapy, a patient at times may require medication, other medical services, family therapy, parenting instruction, vocational rehabilitation, and social and legal services. It is critical that the treatment approach be appropriate to the individual's age, gender, ethnicity, and culture.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical for treatment effectiveness. The appropriate duration for an individual depends on his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that for most individual, the threshold of significant improvement is reached at about 3 months in drug addiction treatment. After this threshold is reached, additional treatment can produce further progress toward recovery. Because people often leave treatment prematurely, programs should include strategies to engage and keep patients in treatment.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Counseling (individual and/or group) and other behavioral therapies are critical components of effective treatment for addiction. In therapy, patients address issues of motivation, build skills to resist drug use, replace drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding non-drug using activities, and improve problem-solving abilities. Behavioral therapy also facilitates interpersonal relationships and the individual's ability to function in the family and community.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Detoxification is only the first stage of addiction treatment and by itself does little to change long-term drug use. Detoxification safely manages the acute physical symptoms of withdrawal associated with stopping drug use. While detoxification alone is rarely sufficient to help addicts achieve long-term abstinence, for some individuals it is a strongly indicated precursor to effective drug addiction treatment.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Treatment does not need to be voluntary to be effective. Strong motivation can facilitate the drug addiction treatment process. Sanctions or enticements in the family, employment setting, or criminal justice system can increase significantly both treatment entry and retention rates and the success of drug treatment interventions.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Possible drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously. Lapses to drug use can occur during treatment. The objective monitoring of an individual's drug and alcohol use during treatment, such as through urinalysis or other tests, can help the patient withstand urges to use drugs. Such monitoring also can provide early evidence of drug use so that the individual's treatment plan can be adjusted. Feedback to individuals who test positive for illicit drug use is an important element of monitoring.
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Drug Addiction Treatment: Recovery from drug addiction can be a long-term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment. As with other habits, relapses to drug use can occur during or after successful treatment episodes. Addicted individuals may require prolonged treatment and multiple episodes of treatment to achieve long-term abstinence and fully restored functioning. Participation in self-help support programs during and following treatment often is helpful in maintaining abstinence.
