by Mayflor Markusic

Created on: July 15, 2009   Last Updated: January 12, 2010

Drug Addiction Treatments

Finding effective cocaine treatments, meth treatments, and other drug addiction treatments demands a more clinical view of the people who abuse drugs. Many societies consider drug addicts as criminals. There are drug lords that are armed to the teeth and drug trafficking has been linked to prostitution, domestic violence, and kidnapping. But abusing drugs is not criminal. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) described drug abuse as a chronic and recurring disease similar to asthma and diabetes.

Drug addicts are neither criminals nor victims. They are patients that needed drug addiction treatment. A cocaine addict needs cocaine treatment while a meth addict requires meth treatment. Like diabetics, drug addicts undergo relapses and need lifestyle changes. Mere abstinence from the abused drug will not be an affective drug addiction treatment. Meth treatment is not just about keeping the patient away from methamphetamine. There should be counseling, management of withdrawal symptoms, and treatment of other diseases.

Each drug abuse patient is unique. This precludes the idea of a one-size fits-all drug addiction treatment. There are no blueprints for cocaine treatments and meth treatments. The drug addiction treatment is not just comprehensive but also tailored to the unique needs of the patient.

There is, however, a general guideline in formulating a specific drug addiction treatment. A detoxification process precedes the actual drug addiction treatment procedure. Then, a relapse prevention phase follows the major drug addiction treatment procedure in order to prevent or lessen the possibility of a return to drug abuse. In other words, neither cocaine treatment nor meth treatment can be considered as simple procedures. To illustrate, here are specific examples of cocaine treatment and meth treatment.

Cocaine Treatment

Cocaine is a powerful stimulant abused by over 6 million Americans (1). Constant abuse of this drug leads to paranoia and withdrawal leads to depression (2). Although cocaine abuse alters the physiology of the brain, there is no known effective cocaine treatment that uses medications. The NIDA, however, is relentlessly researching potential medical treatments for cocaine addiction (3). In the meantime, cocaine treatment is limited to psychological and behavioral approaches.

The two popular cocaine treatment procedures are behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy (4). Behavioral therapy includes the identification

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