Principles of Effective Drug Addiction Treatment

Drug Addiction treatment is aimed to stimulate addicted individuals to terminate uncontrollable drug pursuing and use. For many people, treatment is a long-term process which includes many interventions and consistent monitoring.

The main principles of effective treatment are:

Addiction is a complicated but treatable disease that affects activities of brain and behavior.
Single treatment is not suitable for every person.
Treatment should be made quickly available.
Effective treatment takes care of various needs of the individual and not confined to his or her drug abuse.
Staying in treatment for sufficient period of time is very essential.
Counseling a person or group and other behavioral therapies are the most regularly used methods of drug abuse treatment.
Medications are an essential component of treatment for most of the patients, particularly when associated with counseling and other behavioral therapies.
An individual’s treatment and services plan should be evaluated continuously and changed accordingly to make sure that it fulfills his or her changing needs.
Most of the drug-addicted people will also suffer from other mental disorders.
Medically aided detoxification is just the initial stage of addiction treatment and has impact to change long-term drug abuse.
Drug use at the time of treatment should be supervised continuously, as lapses can occur at the time of treatment.
Treatment programs must determine patients for the existence of HIV/ AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases and also provide intended risk-reduction counseling to avoid risk of spreading infectious diseases.
Treatment may not be voluntary in order to be effective.