People spend more time researching when shopping for a new car than when deciding on the best addiction treatment option, according to a recent article in The New York Times. There is an estimated 23.5 million Americans addicted to drugs and alcohol. Of this number about 1 out of every 10 seek treatment. And for that small percentage who get into treatment, the relapse rate is very high. So when it comes to addiction treatment, what should people be looking for?
One of the biggest problems with addiction treatment options today is that many providers still use the outdated model that one size fits all. Another problem according to a study done last year by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, is that many providers are not medical professionals and they don’t offer “evidence-based care” or “treatment consistent with scientific knowledge about what works.” This means that thousands of treatment programs around the country still offer the same type of care that someone fifty years ago would have received. Hasn’t our understanding of the brain changed since then?
To be the most effective, addiction treatment needs to be comprehensive. The risk of relapse is higher for individuals who only focus on one aspect of the disease when there are multiple. Addiction treatment needs to address the physical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems of an addict. And for each individual this may be different. So the practice of individualized care is crucial for addiction treatment to be successful.
The 21st century addiction treatment model with more comprehensive care and more individualized programming is a step in the right direction. However, with one exception: the use of drug therapy like Suboxone or Methadone. Even leading addiction researchers like Dr. Mark Willenbring are in support of drug therapy and see it as relapse-prevention medication. But these drugs are a narcotic, the body can develop a dependency to them, and it is difficult to detox from them. Why use drugs to get off of drugs when there are better, safer options? This is why ExecuCare uses nutritionally assisted detox for neurotransmitter restoration as a part of our comprehensive and individualized addiction treatment program.
