Drug Addiction Treatment Methods

Drug addiction can be debilitating, devastating, even deadly – but it doesn’t have to be that way. What is often lost in descriptions of substance addiction is that even in the most severe cases, the disorder is treatable. With behavioral therapy, medical supervision, and the development of an effective support network, formerly addicted individuals are capable of regaining control over their behaviors and living healthy, productive lives.

About Treatment

Drug addiction is an intensely personal experience, and an effective treatment plan must address the unique circumstances of the addicted individual. Most plans incorporate some type of behavioral therapy (for example, personal counseling, group therapy, family counseling, and participation in an ongoing support group). Depending upon the nature and severity of a person’s addiction, medical treatment (such as methadone therapy for heroin addicts) may also be appropriate.

The general rule regarding treatment is that early, intensive intervention increases the odds successful recovery. Because drug addiction rarely occurs in a vacuum, additional support services such as mental health treatment and career rehabilitation are often called for.

Ultimately, the goal of any drug treatment program is lifelong sobriety – though more immediate objectives may focus on harm reduction (stopping current drug use) and damage control (minimizing the damage that the substance abuse has already inflicted upon the addicted individual’s mental, physical, and social well-being).

Short-Term Treatment

A treatment program for drug addiction is considered to be “short-term” if it lasts less than six months. Short-term programs are designed to wean the patient from drug dependency, develop drug-resistance skills and strategies, and establish a foundation upon which to base lifelong recovery.

Short-term treatment may take place either on an outpatient basis or as part of a residential treatment program – and medication may or may not be involved. The final few decades of the 20th century saw a significant increase in private residential treatment programs for chemical dependency, though inpatient services are also offered in some public hospitals as well.

Most residential or in-patient programs involve an initial treatment phase that lasts between three to six weeks, and which is then followed by a combination of outpatient therapy and participation in an ongoing recovery support group such as Narcotics Anonymous.

Long-Term Treatment

Recovery from drug addiction is a lifelong process, and some individuals require a longer-term treatment plan in order to successful shed their addiction.

or example, many individuals who were previously addicted to opiates participate in long-term methadone maintenance programs in which they receive a synthetic substitute that enables them to overcome their drug-seeking urges and allows them to become productive members of their families, communities, and workplaces.

Methadone treatment may or may not also be accompanied by a therapeutic component or participation in a 12-step support group – though studies have shown that combining methadone treatment with counseling, therapy, and additional support services increases a program’s effectiveness.

Individuals whose addictions were non-opiate in nature may benefit from long-term treatment that is not supported by medications. In such cases, continued participation in individual, group, and family therapy may yield the best results.

Therapeutic Communities

One unique type of long-term treatment is the therapeutic community – a highly structured residential program for patients with histories of heavy drug use, criminal involvement, or severely impaired social functioning related to substance abuse. For as long as 12 months, participants in therapeutic communities receive in-patient treatment that is focused on enabling them to re-enter society and live a drug-free, crime-free life.

Researchers report that the therapeutic community model is most effective when it is linked with community-based services that offer continuing treatment during the patient’s transition back into society. Prison-based therapeutic communities have been credited with reducing recidivism rates for both drug use and crime.

Financial Incentives

Regardless of where a patient is treated, what types of services are offered, or who pays for this treatment, studies continue to demonstrate that treatment of addicted individuals is both more effective and less costly than incarceration.

For example, one month of methadone maintenance therapy costs less than $300, while incarcerating that individual for heroin possession would cost the state more than $3,000 over the same 30-day period.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), every dollar that is spent on treatment saves the nation between $4 and $7 that would have been spent on costs related to crime, medical care, social welfare programs, and other services related to untreated addiction.