The ultimate goal of all drug abuse treatment is to enable
the patient to achieve lasting abstinence, but the immediate
goals are to reduce drug use, improve the patient's ability
to function, and minimize the medical and social complications
of drug abuse.
There are several types of drug abuse treatment
programs. Short-term methods last less than 6 months and
include residential therapy, medication therapy, and drug-free
outpatient therapy. Longer term treatment may include, for
example, methadone maintenance outpatient treatment for
opiate addicts and residential therapeutic community treatment.
In maintenance treatment for heroin addicts, people in
treatment are given an oral dose of a synthetic opiate,
usually methadone hydrochloride or levo-alpha-acetyl methadol
(LAAM), administered at a dosage sufficient to block the
effects of heroin and yield a stable, noneuphoric state
free from physiological craving for opiates. In this stable
state, the patient is able to disengage from drug-seeking
and related criminal behavior and, with appropriate counseling
and social services, become a productive member of his or
her community. Methadone is not a long term
solution and is not a recommended method for seeking long
term addiction recovery. It is simply an inadequate solution
for a significant problem.
Outpatient drug-free treatment does not include medications
and encompasses a wide variety of programs for patients
who visit a clinic at regular intervals. Most of the programs
involve individual or group counseling. Patients entering
these programs are abusers of drugs other than opiates or
are opiate abusers for whom maintenance therapy is not recommended,
such as those who have stable, well-integrated lives and
only brief histories of drug dependence.
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