Successful Alcohol Rehab Treatment Center in California

Malibu Horizon is one of the best alcohol rehab treatment centers in the United States. We offer an alcohol treatment center different from any other program in the nation. They use CBT and MET therapy, treating each person as a unique individual. Malibu Horizon is one of the only alcohol treatment centers in the world treating alcoholism strictly as a medical condition, with many different types of therapy, without using the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Most alcohol rehab treatment centers in the United States use the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as the basis for their treatment program. The 12 steps have been around for over 75 years and have helped a lot of alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

More About Alcohol Treatment and Alcoholism Rehab Centers

As a general rule, each client in an alcohol rehab is assigned their own therapist, or counselor. The client therapist relationship is one of the most important elements in alcohol rehab. There are a wide variety of models and philosophies in the alcohol rehab industry. Most programs provide counseling, behavioral therapy, lectures, group therapy, discussion groups and other types of services to persons with alcohol use disorders. Many various behavioral models of change and awareness have been shown to help alcohol rehab patients achieve and maintain prolonged abstinence. One frequently used treatment is cognitive behavioral and relapse prevention. In alcohol rehab, patients are taught new ways of acting and thinking that will help them stay off alcohol. For example, patients in alcohol rehab are urged to avoid situations that lead to alcohol abuse and to practice alcohol refusal skills. In alcohol rehab, they are taught to think of a relapse as a "slip" rather than as a failure. Cognitive behavioral and relapse prevention has proven to be a useful and lasting therapy. Specific approaches are associated with the particular setting. The success rate is a difficult thing to measure for a variety of reasons. It is somewhat of a mystery why some people "make it" and others do not.

Research confirms, people who attend alcohol rehab, are more likely to succeed because the most difficult part of recovery is the first 30, 60 and 90 days. Once someone stays sober for some period of time, they see the benefits of not drinking and it gradually becomes easier to maintain.

Alcohol Treatment and Rehab is a Complex Process

There has to be rules and close supervision. All treatment centers have resident managers who supervise much of the off-time. No two alcohol rehabs are very much alike. And so a "typical" day in an alcohol rehab could vary from place to place. Alcohol rehab always starts with detox. Most start the day with some form of group therapy session, followed by some form of physical exercise. Then some type of educational function might be scheduled, such as a lecture, for example. Then lunch, of course, followed by a group or individual counseling session. Many programs require some self management of personal time. This might be well spent reading, journal or working on an assignment. In the afternoon, many places offer exercise, or outings to a variety of off campus settings. After dinner, many programs take their clients to an AA or NA meeting. Malibu Horizon is a non 12 step rehab program.

Alcohol Rehab Treatment Centers without Religion

The problem is the treatment of alcoholism has evolved over the past 75 years, medically. It is concerned a disease. And like any other disease, it has to be treated with the latest medical treatments available, as a medical condition. There have been several court cases where the courts have ruled an atheist cannot be ordered to AA. The therapy treatment for alcoholism is by far the most important component of measuring the quality of a program. A highly credentialed staff, with experience, makes the biggest difference. The term alcohol rehab is short for alcohol rehabilitation. The term itself merely means any form of working on recovering from a serious alcohol problem. However, the term has come to mean an actual treatment facility whose primary function is providing treatment for clients with abuse alcohol, usually residing on a full-time basis.

Measuring the Quality of Various Alcohol Rehab Treatment Centers

The quality of the program can be measured by how much one on one therapy is provided. Alcoholism is a disease if the body and the mind. Once the alcohol is safely removed from the body the physical cravings diminish. It is the compulsive need to drink, with all its myriad if behavioral emotional manifestations, which need therapeutic interventions. However, outcome studies seem to indicate an individual's success will be determined primarily by their willingness to incorporate new concepts and ideas into their lives and change their reactions to patterns of behavior, reacting and thinking. If the measurement for success is staying "sober" for 1 year after completing a 30 day inpatient alcohol rehab, then the rate of success is less than 50%. The truth is many clients relapse at least once before they manage to find long lasting alcohol recovery. Research is constantly being done on the disease of alcoholism. The measure of a program is how flexible is the philosophy of the program to incorporate new information and techniques into their program. A high number alcoholics have some additional psychological problem. This condition is known as dual diagnosis. A good alcohol rehab will have the proper staff and some part of their program resources to addressing this vital component of treatment. Alcohol rehab is a process that takes time. Alcohol recovery is a journey into a whole new way of life that never ends. The average length of stay in a typical alcohol rehab facility is still 30 days. Recently, more and more professionals seem to agree, the ideal length of time is considerably longer than 30 days. Some even believe 90 days of inpatient alcohol rehab is the ideal amount of time to stay in rehab.

Alcohol Rehabilitation and Therapy in Alcohol Treatment Centers

Most alcoholics have been drinking too much alcohol for a long time. This type of behavior has to be completely reversed, a process that takes time and a considerable amount of effort. Nowadays, the majority of alcohol rehab treatment centers are "free-standing" facilities. They evolved from being primarily hospital based, due to the medical component of alcohol detox being the first step in the recovery process. Alcohol rehab treatment centers now do their own detox right on the premises. Staying in residence for a minimum of 30 days is now considered the minimum amount of time to complete alcohol rehab and treatment. Learning new ways of living and dealing with life is a big part of treatment and rehab. Licensed counselors and therapists have been trained to help alcoholics see what their behavior has done and how they must alter their habits in order to stay sober.

read more about alcohol detox

A Look Back at Alcohol Rehab Treatment Centers

Medical doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, family members and friends have been doing their best to help people with alcohol abuse issues for a long time. As far back as the early 1800's, cases of alcoholism are well documented. But it wasn't until the late 1920's when alcoholism was actually diagnosed and better understood as a medical rather than moral issue. The alcohol rehab industry has grown dramatically in the past 50 years. Over the years, the alcohol rehab industry has evolved into a more successful process. People now with a drinking problem can lead a normal live, in recovery. Many people have made great contributions to the alcohol rehab industry. In the United States today, there are more than 10,000 alcohol rehabs. Although people have been abusing alcohol since alcohol was discovered, treating the disease itself really began when Swedish physician Magnus Huss first coined the term "alcoholism" in 1848.

New Advances in Alcoholism Treatment

More than 700,000 Americans receive alcoholism treatment on any given day. However, the techniques of alcoholism therapy have traditionally been based on clinical experience and intuition, with little rigorous validation of their effectiveness. Over the past 20 years, modern methods of evaluating medical therapies have been increasingly applied to alcoholism treatment. These methods include the use of control groups for comparison purposes, random assignment of study participants to different treatment groups and, to the greatest extent possible, followup of all patients who entered the study. This issue focuses on the results of recent controlled clinical studies on the effectiveness of self-help groups, psychosocial approaches, and medications in achieving and maintaining abstinence.

Twelve-Step Self-Help Programs

Self-help groups are the most commonly sought source of help for alcohol-related problems. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), one of the most commonly known self-help groups, outlines 12 consecutive activities, or steps, that alcoholics should achieve during the recovery process. Alcoholics can become involved with AA before entering professional treatment, as a part of it, or as aftercare following professional treatment. Although AA appears to produce positive outcomes in many of its members, its efficacy has rarely been assessed in randomized clinical trials.

One randomized study of patients entering employee assistance programs compared inpatient treatment combined with AA with referral to AA alone. This study found that inpatient treatment, a combination of professional treatment and AA, will achieve better results for more people than AA alone. Ouimette and colleagues, as part of a nonrandomized observational study involving 3,000 patients in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, compared predominantly 12-step programs with predominantly cognitive-behavioral programs as well as with courses of therapy that combined both approaches. In cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), the therapist helps the client learn new skills to cope with problems and to change harmful behavior patterns, such as alcohol abuse. One year after completion of treatment, the three types of programs had produced comparable improvements on measures of alcohol consumption and related problems. However, participants in the 12-step programs achieved more sustained abstinence and higher rates of employment compared with participants in the other two programs. Interpretation of these results is complicated by the nonrandom assignment of patients to the different treatment types.

The beneficial effects of AA may be attributable in part to the replacement of the participant's social network of drinking friends with a fellowship of AA members who can provide motivation and support for maintaining abstinence. In addition, AA's approach often results in the development of coping skills, many of which are similar to those taught in more structured psychosocial treatment settings, thereby leading to reductions in alcohol consumption.

Psychosocial Therapy

The following sections deal with selected recent approaches or considerations relevant to the psychosocial treatment of alcohol-related problems.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy

Developed specifically for Project MATCH,1 motivational enhancement therapy (MET) begins with the assumption that the responsibility and capacity for change lie within the client. The therapist begins by providing individualized feedback about the effects of the patient's drinking. Working closely together, therapist and patient explore the benefits of abstinence, review treatment options, and design a plan to implement treatment goals. Analysis suggests that MET may be one of the most cost-effective of available treatment methods. In one study, the motivational interviewing technique-a key component of MET-was shown to overcome patients' reluctance to enter treatment more effectively than did conventional techniques. Couples Therapy

Evidence indicates that involvement of a nonalcoholic spouse in a treatment program can improve patient participation rates and increase the likelihood that the patient will alter drinking behavior after treatment ends.

There are various approaches to marital family therapy. Behavioral-marital therapy (BMT) combines a focus on drinking with efforts to strengthen the marital relationship through shared activities and the teaching of communication and conflict evaluation skills. O'Farrell and colleagues combined couples therapy with the learning and rehearsal of a relapse prevention plan. Among alcoholics with severe marital and drinking problems, the combination approach produced improved marital relations and higher abstinence rates through 30 months of followup compared with patients undergoing only BMT.

Brief Interventions

Many persons with alcohol-related problems receive counseling from primary care physicians or nursing staff in the context of five or fewer standard office visits. Such treatment, known as brief intervention, generally consists of straightforward information on the negative consequences of alcohol consumption along with practical advice on strategies and community resources to achieve moderation or abstinence. Two controlled trials in the United States and Canada demonstrated that this approach reduced drinking, alcohol-related problems, and patients' use of health care services. Most brief interventions are designed to help those at risk for developing alcohol-related problems to reduce their alcohol consumption. Alcohol-dependent patients are encouraged to enter specialized treatment with the goal of complete abstinence.

The brief intervention approach has also been successfully applied outside the primary care setting. Evidence suggests that 25 to 40 percent of trauma patients may be alcohol dependent. Gentilello and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled study among patients in a trauma center who had detectable blood alcohol levels at the time of admission. The researchers found that a single motivational interview at or near the time of discharge reduced drinking levels and re-admission for trauma during 6 months of followup. Monti and colleagues conducted a similar randomized controlled study among youth ages 18 to 19 admitted to an emergency room with alcohol-related injuries. After 6 months, although all participants had decreased their alcohol consumption, the group receiving brief intervention had a significantly lower incidence of drinking and driving, traffic violations, alcohol-related injuries, and alcohol-related problems.

Brief intervention among freshman college students previously identified as being at high risk for harmful consequences of heavy drinking has been shown to result in a significant decline in alcohol-related problems.

Treating Alcohol and Nicotine Addiction Together

Nicotine and alcohol interact in the brain, each drug possibly affecting vulnerability to dependence on the other. Consequently, some researchers postulate that treating both addictions simultaneously might be an effective, even essential, way to help reduce dependence on both. A recent study by Hurt and colleagues showed that treatment for nicotine dependence did not interfere with abstinence from alcohol or other drugs. Furthermore, such concurrent treatment not only enhanced cessation from smoking, it also did not induce already abstinent smokers to relapse to drinking.

Pharmacotherapy

More recently, research has focused on the development of medications for blocking alcohol-brain interactions that might promote alcoholism. In 1995 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the medication naltrexone (ReViaTM) as an aid in preventing relapse among recovering alcoholics who are simultaneously undergoing psychosocial therapy. This approval was based largely on two randomized controlled studies that showed decreased alcohol consumption for longer periods in naltrexone-treated patients compared with those who received a placebo.

As is the case with all diseases, however, naltrexone is only effective if taken on a regular basis. Like all medications, naltrexone has side effects. One recent study reported a high rate of side effects, which probably explains why this study, in contrast with most other studies, failed to find naltrexone effective.

Acamprosate showed promise in treating alcoholism in several randomized controlled European trials involving more than 3,000 alcoholic subjects who were also undergoing psychosocial treatment. Analysis of combined results showed that more than twice as many alcoholics receiving acamprosate remained abstinent up to 1 year compared with subjects receiving psychosocial treatment alone.

Research suggests that some medications may be more effective for certain types of alcoholics. For example, when ondansetron (Zofran®) was combined with psychotherapy, alcoholics who had begun drinking heavily before age 25 (i.e., early-onset alcoholics) decreased their alcohol consumption and increased their number of abstinent days, but later onset alcoholics did not. Sertraline (Zoloft®), in contrast, appears to reduce drinking in late-onset, but not early-onset, alcoholics. However, fluoxetine (Prozac®), a medication related to sertraline, has not been found to be effective in late-onset alcoholism.

In conclusion, research supports the concept of using medications as an adjunct to the psychosocial therapy of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. However, additional clinical trials are required to identify those patients most likely to benefit from such an approach, to determine the most appropriate medications for different patient types, to establish optimal dosages, and to develop strategies for enhancing patient compliance with medication regimens.

New Advances in Alcoholism Treatment

A Commentary by NIAAA Director Enoch Gordis, M.D.

Alcoholism clinicians have access today to a wide range of treatment options for their patients. Some of these treatments, such as 12-step self-help programs, have been around a long time. Others-including brief intervention and various therapies borrowed from other fields, such as motivational enhancement therapy and couples therapy-are relatively new concepts that have been shown to be effective in reducing the risk for alcohol-related problems. The key change that has occurred, of course, is the advent of alcoholism clinical research, which over the past 15 years or so has made significant progress toward rigorous evaluation of both existing therapies and newly developed therapies for use in treating alcohol-related problems. Finally, continued research on alcohol's effects in the brain and on the links between brain and behavior, which has already led to the development of medications to reduce craving, is likely to provide clinicians with a range of highly specific medications that will, when used in conjunction with behavioral therapies, improve the chance for recovery-and the lives-of those who suffer from alcohol abuse and dependence.

ref: NIAAA

Other Resources for Drug Rehab Treatment Center Information

National Institute on Drug Abuse

National Institute on Alcoholism

American Medical Association - Alcohol & Drug Abuse

American Society of Addiction Medicine

Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration

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White House Drug Policy

California Drug Abuse Programs

USA Prescription Drug Help

Medline Plus

Family Help - Alanon

Drug Addiction Medline Plus

Narcotics Anonymous

SMART Recovery

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