Substance abuse treatment is available in various formats in today’s times. It is no longer the dreaded kind of treatment that is was about ten years ago, when the only forms of treatment known for curing a person’s dependency were to rehabilitate the person in a lonely inpatient setting. In those cases, patients would be isolated from their families and kept away from all kinds of familiar environments by housing them in a rehab center which would be far removed from their homes, both physically and mentally. There needed to be a constant medical vigilance and tales of detox withdrawal and cold turkey were too horrific to be recounted to others, be they adults or children.

However, the scenario of substance abuse treatment has definitely changed in today’s times. Today, several kinds of medicines are available for addiction treatment. These medicines can do different things for the person’s body. Firstly, they can help remove the person’s craving for the substance in totality. Antabuse that is developed for helping people overcome their alcohol addiction is an example of this. When a person is put on Antabuse treatment, the person actually develops an aversion to alcohol. This makes it all the more simple for the person to come out the dependency.

Secondly, some medicines can help people lose the temptation for the addictive substance by replacement therapy. Methadone and buprenorphine used in heroin treatment are both effective in this manner. As long as a person is kept up on these medicines, the person will lose the temptation for the substance of addiction, which in this case is heroin. The only problem with replacement medication (also known as maintenance medication) is that they are themselves addictive, as they belong to the same class of substance as the original substance of the addiction. Therefore, it becomes very important that these medications are provided in a controlled and medically supervised treatment setting.

Speaking of methadone and buprenorphine, methadone needs to be provided in a complete inpatient setting because of it habit-forming nature. The substance can very soon cause an addiction of its own, replete with a withdrawal if it is stopped abruptly. Hence, complete control is needed when this medication is administered. The quantity must be perfectly controlled and it is important to reduce the dosage slowly as the person begins overcoming the heroin dependency. Buprenorphine, the alternative treatment, is not as habit-forming. Hence, in most substance abuse treatment centers, methadone is administered in an inpatient setting while buprenorphine can be administered for outpatient patients also. In recent times, this has made heroin treatment convenient because now there is an outpatient option for people who are looking for a more convenient form of treatment for their mild addiction conditions.

Then there is a third kind of medication that is required during substance abuse treatment. This medication is mainly used for normalizing the conditions of the person’s body once the addiction starts wearing off. The bulk of the medications that are provided in alcohol abuse treatment, for example, are for this intention. Campral, which is chemically acamprosate, is an example of such a drug. When the person is kept up on Campral treatment, the chief benefit that they get is that their brain gets stabilized in its function, especially after the exposure to alcohol. Medical experts have not yet discovered the exact manner in which Campral works on the human system, but it definitely acts positively on the pathways of the brain that are influenced by the presence of alcohol in it.

There are various other medications that are provided to the patient to clear off and improve their physiological functions too, those that may have been impaired by the substance of the addiction. There are medications that are provided to improve the functioning of the liver and the kidneys, for example. These medications are provided during the detox treatment and may be kept up during the aftercare program.

This brings us to aftercare medication, one of the most vital arms of the medicinal therapies used in substance abuse treatment. Most of the medications provided during this phase of the treatment are maintenance medication, provided so that the person may effectively come out of the craving of the substance. The rest of the medications are provided so that their bodies do not degenerate on account of the addicted phase of their life. This is both a repair treatment in which already degenerated processes are improved and a prevention treatment where further biological problems to the body are averted.



Thanks to Todd Lange for contributing this article to our Addiction blog:

Free Drug Rehab Program

One of the key elements of the addiction treatment program in Missouri is the drug detox program. Different parts of the world have different meanings of drug detox. In some parts of the world, detox may simply mean to reduce the person’s dependency on a substance from a higher level of addiction to a lower level. However, the meaning of drug detox in Missouri is to completely cleanse the person’s body of the substance of addiction present in it. Now, this is definitely not an easy task to achieve. Especially in people have been with an addiction since several years and people who have been using the substance of addiction to a very high extent, the detox can be very difficult.

The basic nature of a drug detox in Missouri is to make the patient abstain from the addictive substance completely, in an isolated setting. Keeping the patient in the isolated setting makes actually makes it easier for the patient to overcome the temptation for the substance because of the simple reason that the patient is removed from familiar surroundings. At the same time, the patient is provided with complete medical supervision so that it becomes safer for them to go through the entire detox process.

Abstinence from a substance that someone is addicted to is never simple. Within just a day or two, the patient will begin to feel the first pangs of withdrawal. Withdrawal is the body’s way of letting the person know that it needs the substance within it. During the withdrawal, the person will begin feeling a very intense urge to consume the substance. This will increase by the third and fourth days, which are known as the peak of the detox.

However, during this period, the treatment providers will do all they can to provide the patient with some medication that can help reduce the urges for the substance. For example, if the person is with an alcohol addiction, a substance like Naltrexone or Antabuse can help reduce the urges for alcohol. The medication depends on the kind of addiction the person is in. The routine for this medication is set up by the treatment providers in advance, but as later complications arise, the treatment program may be altered, sometimes even on an extempore basis.

A drug detox in Missouri is said to be complete when the patient has been completely pulled out of the withdrawal and has been brought out of the intense craving for the substance. This may take anywhere up to a week, but in some cases, the treatment may go on to much higher than that.

Now, let us see the factors on which the length and the intensity of the drug detox in Missouri depend.

The Nature of the Addiction

The nature of the addiction will influence the drug detox program because the stronger the addictive substance is, the more time will be required to pull the person out of the withdrawal. Substances like alcohol and marijuana can be easily detoxified from a person’s system, but heroin and methamphetamine can take even up to a month for getting properly detoxified from the person’s body.

The Length of Time and Frequency of the Addiction

If the person has been using the addictive substance for a very long time, then it indicates that a lot of the substance must have got accumulated in the person’s body. Even if the person has been taking only a little of the substance, it will metabolize and house itself in the person’s body. On the other hand, if the patient has been consuming very high doses of the substance, then there will be too much of the substance present in the body even if the person has not been addicted to it for a very long time. In both these cases, the detox program will become very difficult because the body is expected to react violently to suddenly stopping the substance.

The Physical and Mental Health of the Patient

It is important that the person be in sound condition of body and mind for an easy detox process. People who have health complications will find it very difficult to come out of the pangs for the substance. At the same time, people with mental illnesses will not be able to generate the determination that is needed to stay away from the substance of addiction or to bear the withdrawal.

Apart from these, several other factors can influence the drug detox in Missouri. Some of these include the age of the person, pregnancy, family situation, etc.



Thanks to Todd Lange for contributing this article to our Addiction blog:

Drug Addiction Treatment Programs