All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘treatment’
Extended Abstinence is Predictive of Sustained Recovery
The odds of remaining abstinent rise if patients have been abstinent for 1 to 3 years. After 3 years, the recovery odds remain high and stable. Therefore, as with other chronic diseases, addiction requires an ongoing and active disease management strategy.
Attorney General Holder: All Drugs, Including Alcohol, Are “Potentially Harmful”
Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee Wednesday that all drugs, including alcohol, are “potentially harmful.” He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with President Obama’s recent comment that smoking marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, in a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “It’s difficult for me to conceive how the President of the United States could make such a statement.” President Obama made his comment about marijuana in an interview with The New Yorker. He told the magazine he does not think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol. He added smoking marijuana is “not something I encourage.”
One Thing Obamacare Can’t Fix: Bad Addiction Treatment
By David Sheff Nov. 13, 2013
After weeks spent offering up increasingly desperate excuses for the glitchy rollout of Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seemed elated to change the subject, at least for a moment, when last week she announced regulations that will mean that almost all Americans with health insurance will be fully covered for the treatment of mental illness, including addiction, at least as well as they’re covered for physical diseases. The regulations were trumpeted as part of the President’s plans for curbing gun violence, but they have enormous implications for untreated addiction, which alone costs the nation $420 billion a year, mostly in health care, criminal justice and lost productivity.
(MORE: Viewpoint: We Need to Rethink Rehab)
The new rules are comprehensive, but it’s impossible to know how they’ll be interpreted, monitored and policed. Treating mental illness isn’t easy or cheap, and treating addiction can be even more complex. Research has shown that addicts who drop out of treatment before 90 days have relapse rates similar to those who stay in treatment only a day or two. After 90 days, however, relapse rates drop steadily the longer they stay in treatment. Few physical illnesses require three-plus months in the hospital. Even after a long stint in an inpatient or outpatient program, most addicts require aftercare that may continue for one to many years. Will insurance now pay for those who need long-term stays in sober-living houses or outpatient programs? What if they relapse, which is common for sufferers of this chronic illness? Will insurance pay for another three-month stint? And another? Will they cover addiction medications like methadone or buprenorphine, even though some patients must stay on them for years or even a lifetime (just as some must stay on blood-pressure medication or insulin throughout their
Read more: David Sheff: Obamacare Needs to Overhaul Addiction Treatment | TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/13/one-thing-obamacare-cant-fix-bad-addiction-treatment/#ixzz2rjs1C15H
Read more: One Thing Obamacare Can’t Fix: Bad Addiction Treatment
When Treating Addiction, Don’t Forget Patients’ Other Health Issues
“We don’t want to forget the rest of health when treating substance use disorders,”
When Treating Addiction, Don’t Forget Patients’ Other Health Issues
Helping patients with substance use disorders manage their other health problems can assist them in their recovery, says Sharone Abramowitz, MD, co-chair of the recent California Society of Addiction Medicine conference. She notes addiction medicine professionals often ignore patients’ other chronic health conditions.
“We don’t want to forget the rest of health when treating substance use disorders,” says Dr. Abramowitz, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in private practice and Director of Behavioral and Addiction Medicine for the Primary Care Medicine Training Program at Alameda Health System. “It’s not just about relapse prevention – we also want to focus on things that improve health.”
People addicted to drugs or alcohol may be out of touch with their bodies, she says. “Often there’s been a lot of damage to their health through substance abuse. We may have to help them deal with diet, exercise, medication management and access to other physical health resources they may need. They can be driven back to using if they are struggling with poor health control.”
This holistic approach is not common in the addiction medicine field, she observes. “Often in substance abuse treatment, we are very focused on helping the person maintain recovery and prevent relapse, with 12-step work and medications that can help in the substance abuse recovery process and co-morbid mental health recovery processes.”
Psychology Today – Best In Treatment 2014
Psychology Today – Best In Treatment 2014
