While the country’s most used illegal drug is marijuana, alcohol largely is responsible for a very significant percentage of addictions that people are wrestling with today. The numbers for drug users between the ages of 50 and 59 have tripled since 2002, going from 900,000 people to 2.7 million of them, says the National Institutes of Health. But again, the numbers for those who suffer from alcoholism are probably much higher, though statistics are not as easy to keep on these people because alcohol is legal and because one person’s one drink minimum is another’s beginning of a full night of drinking. Everyone is different, which is why every alcohol detox treatment is different for people struggling with alcohol addiction.
What is alcohol detox treatment, and how does it help those who have an addiction to alcohol? According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, an alcohol detox treatment is a specific set of interventions that help to manage acute intoxication or withdrawal symptoms and that are largely supervised by a health care professional to avoid complications that may become life threatening in nature. Therefore, drug and alcohol detox treatment programs target people who are willing to stay at these detox facilities for a specified time period to literally get the drugs or alcohol out of their systems under close watch.
It sounds odd, but sometimes drugs are used to treat those on drugs and alcohol at these facilities. One such drug that is used in an alcohol detox treatment program is Naltrexone, which is an opioid receptor antagonist that basically manages a person’s dependence on alcohol or opiates. The drug first received approval in 1994, after two controlled trials that dated back to 1992 were published. The trials were randomized and helped to revolutionize alcohol detox treatment as it currently stands.
An alcohol detox center that is capable of treating such patients often handles drug detox as well because some patients suffer from both and because the health professionals working there are familiar with both forms of detoxification and can interchange between the two with ease. Therefore, anyone with both problems could have a sufficient alcohol detox treatment that also included detox from drugs if necessary. These centers’ ability to help these patients both physically and emotionally to detach from their addictions has helped to make great strides in recovery for millions of Americans.
Learn more: www.newbeginningsdrugdetox.com
