Addiction Treatment Blog

In 1954, Olds and Milner discovered that there appeared to be pleasure spots in the brain. Implanting electrodes in certain areas of the brain, through which a rat can give itself an electric current by pressing on a lever, produced in most brain areas nothing of note. In some areas, however, the rats seemed keen on the effects of self-stimulation and, in some cases, if left to their own devices would self-stimulate to the exclusion of all else – even food and drink.

As mentioned, noradrenaline was discovered in the brain in 1954. In 1959, a second catecolamine, dopamine, was identified, which was shown to be deficient in Parkinson’s disease.

The later mapping of dopamine-containing neurones has shown that they too, like noradrenergic neurones, tend to originate in a discrete area, the ventral tegmentum. Some of these neurones run to strictly motor areas of the brain and constitute the nigrostriatal system, and it is loss of nerve calls in this pathway that leads to Parkinson’s disease. Read more…

If the induction of appetites and cravings, which has been hitherto seen as psychological dependence, is not in fact any more psychological than the physical dependence that underlies withdrawal, is there any other psychology involved? There almost certainly is (1). For example LSD, phencyclidine and many of the new designer drugs do not cause either type 1 or 2 physical dependence. Yet they are increasingly abused, despite evidence that many of these compounds may be fatal. Phencyclidine, for example, has led to a considerable number of fatalities and, despite not leading to any obvious euphoria, during the 1980s became for a period the second most common drug of abuse in the USA. Why?

Common to many of these drugs is the fact that they alter consciousness and, as a result, are interesting to take. On tis basis, one explanation that may account psychedelics, opiates or alcohol, there is a certain amount of playful activity. Read more…

Dependence

Before considering this in detail, we must exclude a type of physical dependence that occurs with a great number of drugs and ordinarily is of little consequence. Many drugs will cause rebound symptoms once they are discontinued. This happens particularly if they block receptors. This blockade leads to the blocked receptors becoming hypersensitive. When the blocking drug is then removed, these receptors are flooded with the normal neurotransmitter and they respond vigorously. It may take 48-72 hours for them to settle back down to normal.

Examples of this are the rebound phenomena that may occur with beta-blockers, such as propranolol, and the cholinergic rebound that may happen after stopping antidepressants with marked anticholinergic effects. Propranolol rebound may lead to palpitations, sweating and flushing. Cholinergic rebound may produce poor sleep and nausea or vomiting. These syndromes are not serious, and high doses of the relevant compounds are stopped abruptly. Read more…

To attempt to write an impartial account of the benzodiazepines is all but impossible (1,2). When they were first introduced these drugs (see the table below) were seen as being of major benefit, and they were widely regarded as extremely safe and demonstrably effective. They were popular with both physicians, consumers and the pharmaceutical industry. Indeed, they appeared to be so effective and so effective and so popular they have caused serious problems for the development and marketing of any new anxiolytic.

More recently, the benzodiazepines have been described as the greatest menace in peace time. They have been seen as the epitome of the psychotropic drug juggernaut, whose prescription must be curbed at all costs. There has been a variety of TV and radio programmes highlighting their dangers and the horrors of dependence, and it has been claimed that coming off them is harder than coming off heroin. But strangely enough, benzodiazepine dependence is perhaps the only case of drug dependence in which the dependent person is viewed with sympathy. Read more…

Watching your daily drinking limits carefully will be beneficial to you in longer term.

All estimates of the total number of problem drinkers tend, by their nature, to be conservative. However, some statistics are very useful for statutory bodies.

The total cost to the NHS of alcohol related problems (ARPs) was £149.35 million in 1990. £26.51 million went into in-patient mental health units, while £109.41 million went into other forms of psychiatric intervention for ARPs. It is estimated that 200,000 life-years are lost per year due to alcohol related problems, with an overall cost to the nation of approximately £2.5 billion.

It is currently estimated that each health district has, on average, 43,000 people who currently drink more than the recommended sensible limit. Approximately 13,750 problem drinkers in each district are presently in contact with the caring professions as a consequence of their alcohol misuse. Read more…

There are disadvantages to home detoxification in addition to it's advantages.

The disadvantages of home detoxification need to be actively considered in each case. The home environment may contain an excessive number of ‘triggers’: it could be that alcohol consumption normally take place at home, with family or friends; access to alcohol may be easy. Therefore, external pressures on the problem drinker may be strong, with the immediate ‘rewards’ from drinking, outweighing the long-term benefits of abstention or moderation.

Hospital admission can offer short-term avoidance of these ‘triggers’. This technique is occasionally used in behavioural management, but long term survival requires more active coping skills.

Several studies have stressed the value of family support in successful treatment outcomes for this client group. However, existing problems within the family (eg marital problems) may lead to additional stress during detoxification. The husband may want to re-establish control of his family, for example in the management of discipline, and/or financial matters. He may try to compensate for lost time with the children by lavishing attention on them and trying to be the model father. The spouse, however, may not want to relinquish this control, having fought long and hard to gain it against the odds. She may not wish to take the risk that her husband will destroy it all again. Thus, the conflict or roles may prompt the need for ‘time out’, allowing separate therapeutic intervention for each partner and a ‘cooling off’ period. In such situations, short-term hospital admission may be appropriate if there is no other suitable alternative. Read more…

Choosing home detoxification may be crucial to your psychological wellbeing.

There are many advantages of home detoxification for both the client and the service provider. There are financial benefits, which will be covered in greater detail in articles due to be published later on this website, and personal benefits for the client, discussed in this article.

Home detoxification ensures that the client can remain within, and make full use of, the home and family support network. It enhances the continuing care process during the involvement of the primary worker and the nurse specialist.

Avoidance of hospital admission reduces the risk of stigma associated with in-patient mental health care. It is also desirable in cases where clients have unpleasant experience of past admissions. Many clients are unlikely to accept in-patient treatment; they feel more secure at home. However, there is a need for careful screening for suitability for home detoxification. Withdrawal and the use of prescribed (and non-prescribed) medication must be closely monitored. Read more…

Home Detox has many advantages compared to clinical detox on alcohol addiction.

The term ‘detoxification‘ can be applied in several ways. It can be used to imply a ‘process’ whereby a substance leaves the body, ie removal of alcohol or a poison; or it can refer to an ‘action’. ie a treatment which entails subjecting onself or another person to a ‘process’.

Within the caring professions, alcohol detoxification is largely recognized as a treatment. What follows aims to examine and explain this method of treatment.

Dr. Tim Stockwell developed the currently recognized model for home detoxification, which he defined as:

a treatment designed to control both medical and psychological complications which may occur temporarily after a period of heavy and sustained alcohol use.

This blog will use Dr. Stockwell’s model throughout.

Withdrawal from even small amounts of alcohol consumption will have physical effects as the substance decreases within the body. These may be relatively minor, such as sensitivity to light, irritability or thirst. Only a small proportion of people with alcohol related problems will have withdrawal symptoms that are so severe that they risk experiencing delirium tremens (DTs) or convulsions. Read more…

If we heard it said of Orientals that they habitually
drank a liquor which went to their heads, deprived
them of reason and made them vomit, we should
say: ‘How very barbarous!’

Jean de la Bruyere (1645-96), ‘Les Caracteres’.

In 1994, the UK spent nearly £12 billion on alcohol.

History of Alcohol

Alcohol has been available to man for several thousand years. Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is produced by the action of yeasts on sugars found in fruit and other plant material. Compared with most other substances of abuse it has a very simple chemical structure. One tends to assume that it was one of the first intoxicants used by man because it is so easy to make. However most of the fruits grown today have been selected for their high sugar content and so the manufacture of fruit wines is a relatively simple process. This was no so in prehistoric times, when sugar-rich plants and sugars themselves were rare. Therefore other plant-derived psychotropic substances that could simply be eaten without preparation probably pre-date alcohol. The first cultures to produce alcohol are thought to have been based in the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. During the 4th millennium BC they probably fermented dates. The warm climate and the high sugar content of the dates were ideal for the purpose. As the process spread, a whole range of naturally occurring substances were used to produce alcoholic drinks.

The discovery of distillation enabled early civilisations to make more concentrated alcoholic drinks. This process was probably discovered independently by several ancient societies. Concentrating the active constituent in this way enabled the alcohol to act as a preservative and beverages could be stored for longer. In Britain, the strength of alcohol-containing drinks was traditionally measured in terms of ‘percentage proof‘; 100 percent proof was equal to 57.1 per cent ethanol by volume. However, it is now the standard practice to state alcohol content in terms of percentage by volume and to refer to the content of individual drinks in terms of ‘units’. Read more…

A hundred doses of happiness are not enough: send to the drug store for another bottle – and, when that is finished, for another…

Aldous Huxley (1894-1964), ‘Brave New World Revisited’.

Some people may be addicted to over-the-counter drugs.

Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines are defined as those which are available without prescription from a pharmacy. As is the case with prescription only medicines, it is important to distinguish between medicine abuse and unnecessary use. For example, many members of the public take vitamin and analgesic preparations indiscriminately. These are examples of unnecessary use of OTC medicines. Many products are also taken for inappropriate medical conditions of where there is little evidence of therapeutic benefit. Examples include vitamin C for colds and a large number of ‘alternative medicine’ products. In the context of this article, abuse implies use of a preparation for a non-medical purpose in order to achieve psychoactive effects (e.g. euphoria) or altered body-image (e.g. weight loss).

Reasons for OTC Abuse

Sometimes the abuse potential of an OTC product is discovered by chance while a patient is taking the preparation for a legitimate reason. Increasingly, however, people may experiment with OTC substances to try to find an effect to their liking. Rumours among the drug culture may alert abusers to a cheap, ready source of an alternative to street drugs. Sometimes, OTCs are used to ‘top-up’ or augment the effects of an illicit substance and occasionally they are used in an attempt to lessen or stave off withdrawal symptoms or for self ‘detoxification‘.

Certain abusers of OTC medicines are mentally ill and consume these products because of obsessive/compulsive disorder or other psychiatric condition. Read more…