Drug Addiction Treatment Centers

Drug Addiction Treatment Centers are places designed to help a patient stop abusing different kinds of substances, from alcohol, psychoactive substances, prescription drugs, and street drugs, including amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin. Addiction, especially in the extreme, to any of these substances can lead to severe suffering, including death, not to mention other social, financial, and physical hardships.
 
In most drug rehab programs, the issue of psychological dependency is addressed, with the intent of educating the patient how to find new methods in which to interact in a drug-free world. Variations of twelve-step programs not only have as their goal to stop the use of drugs or alcohol but also to have the patient change habits and examine why their path led them to their addictions in the first place.

Programs often emphasize that recovery is an ongoing process, and is never finished. The emphasis is on ending the use of drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, completely. Whether or not addicts are able to moderate their drug or alcohol use may be a matter of debate, but most consider the attempt to usually end in relapse.
 
In a drug addiction treatment center, several different types of programs are used, such as residential treatment (or in-patient), out-patient treatment, including local support groups, and recovery homes, also known as sober houses. Some of the newer centers will offer programs targeted to an individual's age or gender. Two different models have developed regarding treatment -- one is faith-based, with the emphasis of the individual believing in a higher power to help, while the other is a free-will model. Depending upon belief systems, one of these two models will work better for the individual.
 
During treatment, the patient must undergo detox. Depending upon the type of substance abuse, different drugs are used. Most medications are a type of opioid, such as methadone or buprenorphine, which treat other opioids, like heroin, morphine, and oxycodone. The use of methadone and buprehnorphine are types of maintenance therapies which are used in order to create stability in an abnormal opioid system. Usually these drugs are used for long periods of times, although they have been known to be used over short periods, too.

Pharmacotherapies are likely to keep changing as new drugs are developed to ease people from their physical dependencies on the drugs. These are generally fairly effective; the hard work comes in the one-on-one and group counseling therapies that occur afterward in rehab, as people attempt to learn how to deal with their issues and life without drugs.