Addiction Treatment

A quick look at Addiction Treatment

There are various kinds of treatment for addiction. These include but are not limited to detoxification within inpatient facilities, outpatient services, individual and family therapy, motivational interviewing, contingency management, addiction support groups, 12-step meetings, cognitive behavioral therapy, and online recovery programs.

Addiction treatment can involve regular monitoring and multiple interventions.  These may include identifying those triggers which lead to cravings, reconstructing new thought processes that replace dysfunctional patterns, and developing a “new script,” which ultimately leads to a productive lifestyle. Treatment is intended to help individuals stop compulsive drug use and behavioral addiction. It also assists individuals in relapse prevention.

In addition to preventing drug use, the goal of addiction treatment is to help people return to productive family life, social, occupational, and community activities. Some research suggests that those individuals who remain in treatment for extended periods, decrease in criminal behavior, and increase in psychological, workplace, and social functioning.  Still, individual outcomes may vary based on how treatment is tailored to the patient, the nature or extent of the problem, and the relationship and interaction between recipient and treatment care providers.¹

Drug addiction treatment varies in duration. Since individuals progress at different rates there is no set length of treatment, although research has shown that positive outcomes have been associated with adequate treatment periods.