| Treatments for alcohol abuse are quite varied in | | | | Medications for alcohol abuse are most often used to |
| keeping with the multiple perspectives of the condition | | | | supplement a person's willpower and encourage |
| itself. Counselors approaching the condition as a | | | | abstinence. |
| medical disease will recommend different treatment | | | | Antabuse (disulfiram), for instance, prevents the |
| processes and goals than, for instance, those | | | | elimination of the chemical acetaldehyde. This causes |
| approaching the condition as one of social choice. Most | | | | severe discomfort when alcohol is ingested, effectively |
| treatments focus on helping abusers completely | | | | preventing the abuser from drinking in significant |
| discontinue their alcohol intake, as well as providing life | | | | amounts while they take the medication. Heavy |
| training and/or social support to help them resist a | | | | drinking while on Antabuse can result in severe illness |
| return to alcohol use. Since alcohol abuse involves | | | | and death. |
| many factors which encourage a person to continue | | | | Naltrexone has also been used because it helps curb |
| drinking (psychological/social, physical, and | | | | cravings for alcohol while the person is on it. Both |
| neurochemical), all of these factors must be addressed | | | | Antabuse and Naltrexone are used to encourage |
| in order to successfully prevent a return to active | | | | abstinence. The have, however, been demonstrated to |
| alcohol use. | | | | cause a rebound effect when the user stops taking |
| The most common approach to alcohol abuse | | | | them. |
| treatment is detoxification followed by a combination | | | | Pharmacological extinction (also called the Sinclair |
| of supportive therapy, attendance at self-help groups, | | | | Method) |
| and ongoing development of coping mechanisms. The | | | | Pharmacological extinction is the use of opioid |
| treatment community for alcohol abuse typically | | | | antagonists [e.g. naltrexone] combined with normal |
| supports an abstinence-based approach, as studies | | | | drinking habits in order to eliminate the craving to |
| have shown that the vast majority of people who | | | | consume alcohol. While standard naltrexone treatment |
| abuse alcohol cannot learn to drink in moderation. | | | | uses the drug to curb craving and enforce abstinence, |
| The effectiveness of alcohol abuse treatments vary | | | | pharmacological extinction targets the endorphin-based |
| from successful to counterproductive. When | | | | neurological conditioning. Our behaviors become |
| considering the effectiveness of treatment options, it is | | | | conditioned when we do something and endorphin |
| important to consider the percentage of those who | | | | bathes our neurons, and that conditioning is reversed |
| drop out of a program, not just those who complete it. | | | | when we do that thing and we don't receive the |
| Most programs can boast a high cure rate for those | | | | endorphins. This method involves the alcohol abusers |
| who complete it because most people only complete | | | | going about their normal drinking habits (limited only by |
| a program if it works for them. It is also important to | | | | safety concerns). Naltrexone is used to prevent the |
| consider not just the percentage of those reaching | | | | endorphins from being released by the alcohol, and |
| sobriety but how many of those experience relapsing. | | | | thus rewarding the drinker's neurochemistry. As such, |
| Here are the most common treatment options for | | | | the desire to drink is eliminted over a period of about |
| alcohol abuse: | | | | three months. This allows an alcohol abuser to give up |
| Detoxification | | | | drinking as being sensibly unbeneficial. The effects |
| Detoxification (commonly referred to as "detox") is the | | | | persist after the drug is discontinued, but the addiction |
| process of eliminating alcohol drinking and giving the | | | | can return if the person drinks without first taking the |
| drinker's bodily system time to re-adjust to the | | | | drug. This treatment is highly unusual in that it works |
| absence of alcohol. Drugs that have similar effects to | | | | better if the patient does not go through detoxification |
| alcohol are used to ease the withdrawal symptoms, | | | | prior to starting it. |
| which can actually be deadly in extreme cases if left | | | | This technique is used with positive results in Finland, |
| untreated. The most often used drugs are | | | | Pennsylvania, and Florida, and is sometimes referred to |
| sedative-hypnotics, such as diazepam or clonazepam. | | | | as the Sinclair Method. |
| Less frequently, barbiturates such as phenobarbital are | | | | However, there is a lot of professional bias against this |
| used. Many weeks after alcohol intake has completely | | | | treatment for two reasons. |
| stopped individuals may still suffer from milder | | | | First, most alcohol abusers cannot successfully drink in |
| withdrawal symptoms; sleep is generally the last | | | | moderation. Second, some studies have also been |
| function to return to normal. | | | | done which claim to demonstrate naltrexone to be of |
| Detoxification is not a treatment for alcohol abuse | | | | questionable value in supporting abstinence. However, |
| itself, but is simply a treatment of the physiologic | | | | the evidence is inconclusive. |
| effects of ongoing abuse of alcohol. It provides an initial | | | | Nutritional therapy |
| path for an abuser to stop drinking in the first place. | | | | Nutritional therapy is not a treatment of alcohol abuse |
| Detoxification treatments without supplemental help for | | | | itself, but rather a treatment of the difficulties that can |
| the patient to continue abstinence have a very high | | | | arise after years of heavy alcohol abuse; many |
| rate of relapse. | | | | alcohol dependents have insulin resistance syndrome, a |
| Detoxification often takes place within an inpatient | | | | metabolic disorder where the body's difficulty in |
| environment, but some programs do offer outpatient | | | | processing sugars causes an unsteady supply to the |
| detoxification. | | | | blood stream. While the disorder can be treated by a |
| Group therapy and psychotherapy | | | | hypoglycemic diet, this can affect behavior and |
| After detoxification, various forms of group therapy or | | | | emotions. These side-effects are often seen among |
| psychotherapy can be used to deal with underlying | | | | alcohol dependents in treatment. The metabolic |
| psychological issues leading to alcohol abuse, and also | | | | aspects of such dependence are often overlooked, |
| to provide the recovering abuser with relapse | | | | resulting in poor treatment outcomes. |
| prevention skills. | | | | There are other less popular treatments for alcohol |
| In the mid-1930s, the mutual-help group-counseling | | | | abuse. This list is not meant to be an exhaustive |
| approach to treatment began and has become very | | | | compilation of every known treatment, but merely a |
| popular. Alcoholics Anonymous is the best-known | | | | general description of the most common treatments in |
| example of the support group movement. Other | | | | use today. People are unique; what works best for |
| groups that provide similar self-help and support | | | | one alcohol abuser may not be the same treatment |
| without AA's spiritual focus include LifeRing Secular | | | | that works best for another. For the greatest level of |
| Recovery, Smart Recovery, Women For Sobriety, and | | | | success, the treatment used must address the root |
| Rational Recovery. | | | | causes of abuse to begin with. Only then will long-term |
| Medications | | | | success be achievable. |