October 9, 2008

News Summary

Addiction treatment and recovery advocate William Cope Moyers has written a new book titled "A New Day, a New Life: A Guided Journal" that explores the rewards and challenges of the first year of addiction recovery, the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel reported Oct. 6.

"Treatment is where the journey starts," Moyers said, but the road to successful recovery "requires daily commitment and effort."

In the book Moyers discusses different approaches to addiction treatment and recovery. Writing about addiction science, Moyers noted that for 10 percent of the population drugs or alcohol "turns a switch on in your head that you can't turn off." The book also talks about the 12-step approach to recovery and the work done by Alcoholics Anonymous.

This is the second book for the author, the son of television journalist Bill Moyers. It follows his 2004 memoir, "Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption." Moyers is currently an executive at Hazelden's Center for Public Advocacy.

"A New Day, a New Life: A Guided Journal" is published by Hazelden Publishing.

Residential Treatment

Residential treatment centers are in a secluded setting and provide nonstop daily care. They are commonly therapeutic communities which have a planned length of stay between 30 to 90 days. Their primary focus is on the rehabilitation of the individual and most of them use the facility's entire community, such as the residents and the facilities staff. Residential treatment develops personal accountability, responsibility and socially productive lives. Recent research has indicated that the most beneficial length of stay for people in drug rehab is 90 days. Our professionals can help you locate the most appropriate drug rehab for you loved one.

Short term residential treatment facilities provide intensive but relatively brief residential treatment. Most short term residential treatment facilities consist of a 3 to 6 week inpatient treatment phase followed by a lengthy outpatient therapy and participation in self help groups.

Residential treatment is usually offered in a safe, empowering setting that gives dignity and respect to the patient, while challenging them in the first steps toward recovering from their addictions. Patients will receive intensive treatment, including education, counseling, goal based treatment, and relapse prevention groups.

Outpatient Treatment

Outpatient drug rehabilitation is a lower intensity and more cost effective alternative to the long term residency programs. They are complete, varied, and highly specific programs created to address drug addiction problems of individuals while remaining in their homes. They are based more on education than therapy. Outpatient drug rehabilitation is recommended for those individuals who need a support system. Outpatient drug rehabilitation is usually split into outpatient individual therapy, family therapy, and group therapy. Outpatient programs include problem-solving, insight oriented psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, 12-step programs, and other various types of therapy.

Outpatient drug rehabilitation team will usually contain psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, social workers and lawyers. The assistance of family and friends will greatly accelerate the recovery process. Treatment for teenagers always requires parental involvement. Outpatient drug rehabilitation will teach the family how to create a better home environment for a more successful recovery. In addition to being present for class at a facility, patients are usually required to attend 12 step meetings and case management conferences.

The 12 Step Method

The 12 step method is composed of guiding rules for recovery from either addictive or behavioral issues. It was developed by Alcoholics Anonymous and is a tried and tested method for long term alcoholism and drug addiction recovery. It is an effective yet simplistic treatment that uses 12 steps for living life in an easier and more rewarding way. The main principle of the program is letting go of the past and dealing with problems as they arise and being aware of the positive success achieved each day.

Finding May Lead to New Treatments to Decrease Risk of Relapse

Scientists have identified a mechanism in the brain that helps to explain why craving for cocaine, and the risk of relapse, seems to increase in the weeks and months after drug use is stopped. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The study1 published in the May 25 issue of the journal Nature, "reveals a novel mechanism for why cocaine craving intensifies after cessation of drug use and suggests a new target for the development of medications to decrease the risk of relapse in abstinent cocaine abusers," says NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow.

Exposure to environmental cues (e.g., people, places, things) previously associated with drug use can trigger drug craving, often leading to relapse. Previous NIDA-funded research using a rat model of drug craving and relapse (published in Nature in 20012Ä) has shown that the responsiveness of rats to cocaine cues progressively increases, rather than decreases, over the first 60 days after cessation of intravenous cocaine self-administration.

In the current study, also in rats, researchers demonstrate that after prolonged periods of forced abstinence from cocaine self-administration, there is an increase in the number of proteins called AMPA glutamate receptors in a brain region known as the nucleus accumbens (a brain area involved in motivation and reward). "The additional AMPA receptors increase the reactivity of the nucleus accumbens to cocaine-related environmental cues, explaining the intensified cue-induced cocaine seeking that occurs after prolonged abstinence from the drug," explains lead investigator Marina E. Wolf, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Neuroscience at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago. "This happens not only because there are more AMPA receptors, but also because the new AMPA receptors are atypical - they are missing a particular subunit, and therefore enable stronger stimulation of the nucleus accumbens than typical AMPA receptors," adds Wolf.

When the investigators blocked these atypical receptors (termed GluR2-lacking AMPA receptors) after prolonged abstinence from cocaine, they were able to substantially decrease intensified cue-induced craving in the rat model. "The finding suggests," says Wolf, "that medications could be developed to block the atypical GluR2-lacking AMPA receptors in the nucleus accumbens, thus reducing drug craving and the risk for relapse, without interfering with neurotransmission at typical AMPA receptors, which are important for normal brain functions such as learning and memory."

The research was performed in the laboratories of Wolf, Michela Marinelli, Ph.D., and Kuei Y. Tseng, M.D., Ph.D., at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and Yavin Shaham, Ph.D., of the NIDA Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, Maryland.

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