Addiction Treatment

magazine

Move over depression and anxiety, trauma is making a comeback as an increasingly recognized and treated co-occurring disorder in addiction treatment. We have long understood that trauma and addictions frequently go hand in hand, but a growing number of clinicians and treatment programs are developing the resources to comprehensively treat both addiction and trauma. A Mind-Body Approach It is believed that m ...

Intensive outpatient drug rehab programs differ in the number, type and intensity of treatment options they provide. However, all of the programs offer the same core treatment elements that are the hallmark of good intensive outpatient drug rehab programs. ...

Gambling can be a destructive addiction that ruins a person’s family and finances. Treating pathological gambling involves several layers of intervention. The person struggling with a gambling addiction must overcome powerful urges to engage in the damaging behavior. The strength of these urges accounts for a high rate of relapse. What if there was a medicine that could help to lessen the power of tho ...

For decades, addiction medicine was a specialty practiced only by psychiatrists. This was, in large part, due to the fact that training was not available to those who were studying to become general practitioners. This year, addiction medicine is set to become the newest specialty in general medicine, much like dermatology, cancer treatment or pediatric medicine. ...

It's the stuff of reality television – a person who can’t stop hanging on to their trash, and lives in piles of wrappers, food cans and mail. Or the story can unfold as a person who hoards shoes or clothing to the point of finding their family life unsettled and their marriage in trouble. However, new studies about hoarding may encourage more focused, brain-based research into the compulsive pro ...

While millions of people have a problem with alcohol addiction, very few have a reliable prescription medication that may serve as the boost they need to finally break the cycle. Topiramate is a relatively new medication that has shown positive results toward cravings and reducing drinking behaviors without widespread side effects. ...

When we see the vacant stares and haggard looks of emaciated men, women, and children, the mind is tempted to relegate whatever circumstances exist for such individuals to some foreign land. Surely, it’s a plea for aid for victims of some natural disaster, war, or at the very least, inhabitants of some third-world country. What’s troubling, however, is when we begin to see those faces in the cities, towns, ...

Lidocaine is a generic drug also known as lidocaine hydrochloride and available under the brand name, Xycloaine. As lidocaine has cardiac antiarrhythmic properties, it is generally used as a local anesthetic. Lidocaine is often used for numbing the gums when a dentist needs to work on a patient’s teeth. More recently, another discovery indicates lidocaine may be useful in other ways. ...

When a person drinks, ethanol - a poison found in alcohol - interrupts the process that activates nerve cells. Ethanol also interferes with the processes that keep some nerve cell activity in restraint mode. Withdrawal creates a reversal of these effects, and leads the central nervous system to be in an over-active state. During this state, cortisol and norepinephrine are over-produced, hormones which can d ...

Before any new drug can be marketed to the public, it has to go through a complicated and lengthy testing and approval process through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This process entails successful completion of various stages, including clinical trials. At any point along the way, testing may be stalled, halted, or lengthened due to FDA requests for additional information or further clinical trial ...