Cocaine Addiction
During the 1980s and 1990s there was a huge increase in the
amount of people who were interested in seeking medical
treatment for cocaine addiction. Treatment centers located
throughout most of the country, (not including the West and
Southwest), claim that the addicts, who check into their
treatment facilities, list cocaine addiction as the most common
addiction. The common drug of choice, among those who were
seeking treatment for a cocaine addiction, were those who were
addicted to smoking crack cocaine. These patients are likely to
be users of more than one substance. Because the use of cocaine
and cocaine addiction is so widespread, it has motivated
extensive efforts to develop effective treatment programs
specifically for cocaine addiction. Cocaine addiction is a
complex problem: it involves biological changes in the brain as
well as a countless number of social, familial, and
environmental factors. Therefore, treatment of cocaine
addiction is difficult, and must concentrate on a variety of
problems. Like any high-quality treatment plan, cocaine
addiction treatment strategies need to assess the
psychological, social, and pharmacological aspects of the
patient's drug abuse.
Medication for Addiction Treatment
Currently, there are no specific medications that are able to
target the actual cocaine addiction. NIDA, the National
Institute of Drug Abuse, is actively pursuing the
identification and testing of new cocaine addiction treatment
medications. “Several newly emerging compounds are being
investigated to assess their safety and efficacy in treating
cocaine addiction. Topiramate® and modafanil®, two marketed
medications, have shown promising signals as potential cocaine
addiction treatment agents. Additionally, baclofen®, a GABA-B
agonist, showed promise in a subgroup of cocaine addicts with
heavy use patterns.”(Information from NIDA.)
Mood changes, among people with cocaine addictions, are a known
physiological change that occurs during the early stages of
cocaine abstinence, so some antidepressant drugs have proven to
be of some benefit. Not only are there problems with treating
the actual cocaine addiction, every year there are cocaine
overdoses that result in death. Therefore, medical treatments
are in the process of being developed in order to help with
severe emergencies from cocaine addiction and overdoses.
Behavioral Treatments
For some with cocaine addictions, methods of behavioral
treatments have been found to be effective and beneficial for
their cocaine addictions. Behavioral interventions include both
residential, or hospitalization inpatient, as well as
outpatient approaches. For most it seems that behavioral
therapies are often the only available, effective treatment to
many drug problems, including cocaine addiction. This is
because there is still no medication that works in the
treatment of addictions. It does seem, however, that when both
behavior treatments and medicating treatments are combined,
this may result in the most effective form for treating any
addiction, including cocaine addiction.
Disulfiram®, a medication that has been used to
treat alcoholism, when combined with a behavior treatment, has
been clinically proven to be the most effective in reducing the
use of cocaine in patients who already have cocaine addictions.
For a drug treatment to be successful, the treatment must be
specific to the individual patient. For instance, if one of the
patients has a hard time holding a job, one part of the rehab
should be helping them by career counseling, or vocational
rehabilitation. A common behavioral therapy method that is
known to produce positive results in many who have cocaine
addictions is a reward program which encourages positive
behavior. An example of these programs would be giving points
or a voucher to a patient who has remained abstinent from
cocaine, or is moving forward with their rehabilitation. These
points or vouchers could then be redeemed for rewards, like
going to a movie or out to dinner. These positive rewards
encourage healthy behavior, rather than the harmful behavior
they were used to.
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