Seems weird to treat a substance problem with a substance, but we’re finding more and more that using drugs in conjunction with traditional alcoholism treatment works better and better!
We discovered that certain drugs helped when combined with therapy because we mapped the physical changes in the brain after years of habitual drinking.
They’re underused, though, but seem to have a higher success rate of breaking the habit!
The main issue is that people drink for a plethora of reasons, so one pill won’t be able to cure them all. Just like one cancer treatment might not help all cancer patients.
Doctors are now looking at a future method where alcoholism and addiction is treated like depression: therapy, and a wide range of drugs to choose and tailor.
Here’s what Raye Litten, associate director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, has to say:
“What we hope to do is to actually have a menu of treatments that clinicians could choose from. If one drug doesn’t work or they can’t tolerate it,” patients would “try another one and so forth, and hopefully they’ll find one that is effective.”
Not everybody is for this, though, like the Betty Ford Clinic — which totes itself as an abstinence program.
Here’s what someone there has to say:
├óΓé¼┼ôWhen you medicalize the disease and pay a lot of attention to the biology, it├óΓé¼Γäós easy to get a patient to say, ├óΓé¼╦£Well, my cravings are gone, there├óΓé¼Γäós nothing else I have to do.’ We try to use the principles of the 12-step program as a source of strength during times of craving, to deal with the inevitable stressors. We want patients firmly involved with that.├óΓé¼┬¥
Still, if you come into the BFC and are on a medication to help with addiction, you won’t be taken off of it. You just won’t be prescribed any while there.
We think that a combined approach is probably the best method. You don’t want people to have to rely on a drug completely, you want them to grow strong in their own sobriety — so you teach them while you medicate. That way, some day past the initial cravings, they can go on with their lives without having to take a pill.
Currently there are a slew of medications being prescribed, but only about 3 that are made specifically for the alcoholism use. The others are meant for other ailments, but seem to work well for alcoholism as well.
Science!
[Image via AP Images.]