Heroin Drug Rehab Treatment Center Detox Facility Program
Malibu Horizon is one of the world's leading treatment centers for heroin detox addiction rehabilitation. By using the most modern methods for heroin detox, clients are safely and comfortably withdrawn off heroin. In order to provide the proper psychological treatments, Malibu Horizon uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) to address each client's behavioral issues. Malibu Horizon may also prescribe certain FDA approved drugs to help relieve a client's heroin cravings. Heroin is an addictive drug that is processed from morphine and usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a black, sticky substance. It is injected, snorted, or smoked. Short-term effects of heroin include a surge of euphoria and clouded thinking followed by alternately wakeful and drowsy states. Heroin depresses breathing, thus, overdose can be fatal. Users who inject the drug risk infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
How Heroin Affects the Brain
Heroin enters the brain, where it is converted to morphine and binds to receptors known as opioid receptors. These receptors are located in many areas of the brain (and in the body), especially those involved in the perception of pain and in reward. Opioid receptors are also located in the brain stem—important for automatic processes critical for life, such as breathing (respiration), blood pressure, and arousal. Heroin overdoses frequently involve a suppression of respiration. Malibu Horizon is one of the world's leading treatment centers for heroin detox addiction rehabilitation. By using the most modern methods for heroin detox, clients are safely and comfortably withdrawn off heroin, an opiate. To provide the proper psychological treatments, Malibu Horizon uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) to address each client's behavioral issues. Malibu Horizon may also prescribe certain FDA approved drugs to help relieve a client's heroin cravings.
Heroin Addiction Treatment Program
After an intravenous injection of heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria ("rush") accompanied by dry mouth, a warm flushing of the skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes "on the nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Users who do not inject the drug may not experience the initial rush, but other effects are the same. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops, in which the user's physiological (and psychological) response to the drug decreases, and more heroin is needed to achieve the same intensity of effect. Heroin users are at high risk for addiction—it is estimated that about 23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it. Opioid receptors are also located in the brain stem, important for automatic processes critical for life, such as breathing (respiration), blood pressure, and arousal. Heroin overdoses frequently involve a suppression of respiration. After an intravenous injection of heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria ("rush") accompanied by dry mouth, a warm flushing of the skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning.
Heroin Withdrawal Rehab - Starts the Recovery Process
Treatment usually begins with detoxification to help patients withdraw from the drug safely. Medications such as clonidine and Buprenorphine, which could be prescribed by our consulting physician, can be used to help minimize symptoms of withdrawal. However, detoxification alone is not treatment and has not been shown to be effective in preventing relapse, it is merely the first step. A range of treatments exist for heroin addiction, including medications and behavioral therapies. Science has taught us that when medication treatment is combined with other supportive services, patients are often able to stop using heroin (or other opiates) and return to stable and productive lives. Buprenorphine is a more recently approved treatment for heroin addiction (and other opiates). Compared with methadone, Buprenorphine produces less risk for overdose and withdrawal effects and produces a lower level of physical dependence, so patients who discontinue the medication generally have fewer withdrawal symptoms than those who stop taking methadone. The development of Buprenorphine and its authorized use in physicians' offices give opiate addicted patients more medical options and extend the reach of addiction medication.
Heroin Detox Using Suboxone
Its accessibility may even prompt attempts to obtain treatment earlier. However, not all patients respond to Buprenorphine some continue to require treatment with methadone. Naltrexone is approved for treating heroin addiction but has not been widely utilized due to poor patient compliance. This medication blocks opioids from binding to their receptors and thus prevents an addicted individual from feeling the effects of the drug. Naltrexone as a treatment for opioid addiction is usually prescribed in outpatient settings, although initiation of the treatment often begins after detoxification. To prevent withdrawal symptoms, individuals must be detoxified and opioid-free for several days before taking naltrexone. Naloxone is a shorter-acting opioid receptor blocker, used to treat cases of overdose. Heroin can be injected, snorted, sniffed or smoked. These routes of administration that rapidly deliver the drug to the brain. Injecting is the use of a needle to administer the drug directly into the bloodstream. Snorting is the process of inhaling heroin powder through the nose, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Smoking involves inhaling heroin smoke into the lungs. All three methods of administering heroin can lead to addiction and other severe health problems.
Principles of Effective Treatment
1. Addiction is a complex but treatable disease that affects brain function and behavior. Drugs of abuse alter the brain structure and function, resulting in changes that persist long after drug use has ceased. This may explain why drug abusers are at risk for relapse even after long periods of abstinence and despite the potentially devastating consequences.
2. No single treatment is appropriate for everyone. Treatment varies depending on the type of drug and the characteristics of the patients. Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to an individual's particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.
3. Treatment needs to be readily available. Because drug-addicted individuals may be uncertain about entering treatment, taking advantage of available services the moment people are ready for treatment is critical. Potential patients can be lost if treatment is not immediately available or readily accessible. As with other chronic diseases, the earlier treatment is offered in the disease process, the greater the likelihood of positive outcomes.
4. Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of the individual, not just his or her drug abuse. To be effective, treatment must address the individual's drug abuse and any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems. It is also important that treatment be appropriate to the individual’s age, gender, ethnicity, and culture.
5. Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical. The appropriate duration for an individual depends on the type and degree of the patient's problems and needs. Research indicates that most addicted individuals need at least 3 months in treatment to significantly reduce or stop their drug use and that the best outcomes occur with longer durations of treatment. Recovery from drug addiction is a long-term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment. As with other chronic illnesses, relapses to drug abuse can occur and should signal a need for treatment to be reinstated or adjusted. Because individuals often leave treatment prematurely, programs should include strategies to engage and keep patients in treatment.
6. Behavioral therapies, including individual, family, or group counseling,are the most commonly used forms of drug abuse treatment. Behavioral therapies vary in their focus and may involve addressing a patient's motivation to change, providing incentives for abstinence, building skills to resist drug use, replacing drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding activities, improving problem-solving skills, and facilitating better interpersonal relationships. Also, participation in group therapy and other peer support programs during and following treatment can help maintain abstinence.
7. Medications are an important element of treatment for many patients, especially when combined with counseling and other behavioral therapies. For example, methadone, Buprenorphine, and naltrexone (including a new long-acting formulation) are effective in helping individuals addicted to heroin or other opioids stabilize their lives and reduce their illicit drug use. Acamprosate, disulfiram, and naltrexone are medications approved for treating alcohol dependence. For persons addicted to nicotine, a nicotine replacement product (available as patches, gum, lozenges, or nasal spray) or an oral medication (such as bupropion or varenicline) can be an effective component of treatment when part of a comprehensive behavioral treatment program.
8. An individual's treatment and services plan must be assessed continually and modified as necessary to ensure that it meets his or her changing needs. A patient may require varying combinations of services and treatment components during the course of treatment and recovery. In addition to counseling or psychotherapy, a patient may require medication, medical services, family therapy, parenting instruction, vocational rehabilitation, and/or social and legal services. For many patients, a continuing care approach provides the best results, with the treatment intensity varying according to a person's changing needs.
9. Many drug-addicted individuals also have other mental disorders. Because drug abuse and addiction, both of which are mental disorders, often co-occur with other mental illnesses, patients presenting with one condition should be assessed for the other(s). And when these problems co-occur, treatment should address both (or all), including the use of medications as appropriate.
10. Medically assisted detoxification is only the first stage of addiction treatment and by itself does little to change long-term drug abuse. Although medically assisted detoxification can safely manage the acute physical symptoms of withdrawal and can, for some, pave the way for effective long-term addiction treatment, detoxification alone is rarely sufficient to help addicted individuals achieve long-term abstinence. Thus, patients should be encouraged to continue drug treatment following detoxification. Motivational enhancement and incentive strategies, begun at initial patient intake, can improve treatment engagement.
11. Treatment does not need to be voluntary to be effective. Sanctions or enticements from family, employment settings, and/or the criminal justice system can significantly increase treatment entry, retention rates, and the ultimate success of drug treatment interventions.
12. Drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously, as lapses during treatment do occur. Knowing their drug use is being monitored can be a powerful incentive for patients and can help them withstand urges to use drugs. Monitoring also provides an early indication of a return to drug use, signaling a possible need to adjust an individual's treatment plan to better meet his or her needs.
13. Treatment programs should test patients for the presence of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases as well as provide targeted risk-reduction counseling, linking patients to treatment if necessary. Typically, drug abuse treatment addresses some of the drug-related behaviors that put people at risk of infectious diseases. Targeted counseling focused on reducing infectious disease risk can help patients further reduce or avoid substance-related and other high-risk behaviors. Counseling can also help those who are already infected to manage their illness. Moreover, engaging in substance abuse treatment can facilitate adherence to other medical treatments. Substance abuse treatment facilities should provide on site, rapid HIV testing rather than referrals to off site testing. research shows that doing so increases the likelihood that patients will be tested and receive their test results. Treatment providers should also inform patients that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has proven effective in combating HIV, including among drug-abusing populations, and help link them to HIV treatment if they test positive.
ref: principles of addiction treatment NIDA
Other Resources for Drug Rehab Treatment Center Information
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Read Heroin Detox Research Article
Best Heroin Detox
American Medical Association - Alcohol & Drug Abuse
American Society of Addiction Medicine
Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration
More NIDA Resources
White House Drug Policy
California Drug Abuse Programs
USA Prescription Drug Help
Medline Plus
Family Help - Alanon
Drug Addiction Medline Plus
Narcotics Anonymous
National Institute on Alcoholism
SMART Recovery
Alcoholics Anonymous
ref: Heroin
