Benefits of Medication Management in Alcohol Treatment Services
Medication assistance, in combination with counseling, can help make the temptation to drink easier to resist. Alcoholism treatment medications can block specific reward receptors in the brain, which makes alcohol and the consumption of alcohol much less appealing.
.. These medications, known as agonists or partial agonists, stop the brain from feeling reward associated with alcohol use. The end result is that the person no longer desires alcohol like he or she used to. Because the brain is no longer registering reward based on alcohol use, it begins to balance itself out again and re-create natural reward pathways without alcohol.
.. Nearly 10 to 20 percent of all patients who see a primary care physician or must enter hospital care have some type of alcohol use disorder.
.. A dual diagnosis occurs when a person receives a diagnosis of both an addiction and some type of mental health disorder. Conditions such as anxiety and depression are very common when alcoholism is present. In other cases, conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and even schizophrenia