DRUGS AND ADDICTIONS

DRUGS AND ADDICTIONS

HELPLINES


FRANK
If you’re having trouble finding the right type of help,
you can always call FRANK 24/7 on 0800 77 66 00
and we can talk through your options.
http://www.talktofrank.com/multimap.aspx?id=278

http://www.drug-rehab-referral.org/index.html

Where we are

Trust The Process Counselling Centre
Telford Place
1 Telford Way
Luton
Beds LU1 1HT
Tel: 0845 241 4588
Fax: 0845 241 3402
Email: info@ttpcc.org


THE FOLLOWING HELPLINES ARE FROM : http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/H/helplines/phone_g_dependency.html




Drinkline provides advice and information for people with alcohol problems and those who'd like to find out about safe limits. Phone them free 24 hours a day on 0800 917 8282.



Alcoholics Anonymous run free self-help groups for people who are alcoholics. You may have heard of their 12-step recovery programme. To find out more, phone Alcoholics Anonymous 24 hours a day on local rate number 0845 769 7555. You can check out their website at www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk.




The Al-Anon family groups offer information and support people concerned about the drinking of a friend or family member. While young people aged 12 to 20 concerned about a parent are supported by Alateen. Both organisations can be contacted on the helpline 020 7403 0888 (every day 10am-10pm). You can also check out their website at www.al-anonuk.org.uk.




The drugs helpline FRANK can give young people and adults information and support on any issues to do with drugs. Their helpline is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day on 0800 77 66 00. You can e-mail your problem to frank@talktofrank.com or go to their website at www.talktofrank.com. There's also a text service for the hard of hearing on 0800 917 8765.



The organisation Re-Solv runs a free helpline for anyone concerned about solvent or volatile substance abuse problems. You can call in confidence on 01785 817885 (Mondays to Fridays 9am-5pm). Their website is at www.re-solv.org.



Release offers support and information for people with drug problems, including prescription drugs. They provide a Release Drug Helpline on 0845 4500 215 (Mondays - Fridays 11am - 1pm, 2 - 4pm) and the Release Legal Helpline which advises on issues of drugs and the law on 0845 4500 215 (Mondays - Fridays 11am - 1pm). You can also email ask@release.org.uk or visit their informative website at www.release.org.uk.




CITA, The Council for Information on Tranquilisers and Antidepressants, provide support and information for people who have become involuntarily addicted to their prescribed tranquillisers. Go to their website www.citawithdrawal.org.uk.




Adfam provides support for the families and friends of drug users, offering information on drugs, the criminal justice system and local support groups. Go to their website at www.adfam.org.uk.




From 1st October 2007 it became illegal to sell tobacco products to people under the age of 18. This a change from 16 and includes cigarettes, cigars, tobacco for roll your own and pipes as well as rolling papers.



The NHS Smoking Helpline has all the advice, information and support you need to stop and stay stopped. The free helpline is on 0800 169 0169 (every day 7am-11pm) with trained counsellors available between 10am and 11pm. You can also find support on the website at www.gosmokefree.co.uk which includes specialist advice for pregnant women.




Quitline helps smokers who want to stop and people trying to remain as ex-smokers. Call free on 0800 00 22 00 (every day 9am-9pm). You can also e-mail them at stopsmoking@quit.org.uk or visit their website at www.quit.org.uk which has a very good section for young people.




Gamcare is a confidential counselling, advice and information service for people affected by a gambling dependency, including family and friends of compulsive gamblers. Phone their local rate helpline on 0845 6000 133 (every day 10am-10pm). You can also e-mail them at info@gamcare.org.uk or check out their website at www.gamcare.org.uk.




National Debtline provides a free, confidential and independent helpline for people with debt problems in England, Wales and Scotland. They can give expert advice over the phone as well providing a self help information pack. Call 0808 808 4000 (Mondays to Fridays 9am-9pm, Saturdays 9.30am-1pm). You can download a lot of the information from their website at www.nationaldebtline.co.uk.




Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research Based Guide


Frequently Asked Questions



Treatment varies depending on the type of drug and the characteristics of the patient. The best programs provide a combination of therapies and other services.





1. What is drug addiction treatment?


There are many addictive drugs, and treatments for specific drugs can differ. Treatment also varies depending on the characteristics of the patient.
Problems associated with an individual's drug addiction can vary significantly. People who are addicted to drugs come from all walks of life. Many suffer from mental health, occupational, health, or social problems that make their addictive disorders much more difficult to treat. Even if there are few associated problems, the severity of addiction itself ranges widely among people.


A variety of scientifically based approaches to drug addiction treatment exists. Drug addiction treatment can include behavioral therapy (such as counseling, cognitive therapy, or psychotherapy), medications, or their combination. Behavioral therapies offer people strategies for coping with their drug cravings, teach them ways to avoid drugs and prevent relapse, and help them deal with relapse if it occurs.



When a person's drug-related behavior places him or her at higher risk for AIDS or other infectious diseases, behavioral therapies can help to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Case management and referral to other medical, psychological, and social services are crucial components of treatment for many patients.



The best programs provide a combination of therapies and other services to meet the needs of the individual patient, which are shaped by such issues as age, race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, pregnancy, parenting, housing, and employment, as well as physical and sexual abuse.





Drug addiction treatment can include behavioral therapy, medications, or their combination.




Treatment medications, such as methadone, LAAM, and naltrexone, are available for individuals addicted to opiates. Nicotine preparations (patches, gum, nasal spray) and bupropion are available for individuals addicted to nicotine.

Components of Comprehensive Drug Abuse Treatment


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The best treatment programs provide a combination of therapies and other services to meet the needs of the individual patient.



Medications, such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, or neuroleptics, may be critical for treatment success when patients have co-occurring mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, or psychosis.
Treatment can occur in a variety of settings, in many different forms, and for different lengths of time. Because drug addiction is typically a chronic disorder characterized by occasional relapses, a short-term, one-time treatment often is not sufficient. For many, treatment is a long-term process that involves multiple interventions and attempts at abstinence.







2. Why can't drug addicts quit on their own?



Nearly all addicted individuals believe in the beginning that they can stop using drugs on their own, and most try to stop without treatment. However, most of these attempts result in failure to achieve long-term abstinence. Research has shown that long-term drug use results in significant changes in brain function that persist long after the individual stops using drugs. These drug-induced changes in brain function may have many behavioral consequences, including the compulsion to use drugs despite adverse consequencesÑthe defining characteristic of addiction.




Long-term drug use results in significant changes in brain function that persist long after the individual stops using drugs.




Understanding that addiction has such an important biological component may help explain an individual's difficulty in achieving and maintaining abstinence without treatment. Psychological stress from work or family problems, social cues (such as meeting individuals from one's drug-using past), or the environment (such as encountering streets, objects, or even smells associated with drug use) can interact with biological factors to hinder attainment of sustained abstinence and make relapse more likely. Research studies indicate that even the most severely addicted individuals can participate actively in treatment and that active participation is essential to good outcomes.












Risk of Abuse and Addiction in Populations Without Drug Abuse Histories Extensive worldwide experience in the long-term management of cancer pain with opioid drugs has demonstrated that opioid administration in cancer patients with no histories of substance abuse is only rarely associated with the development of significant abuse or addiction.




Indeed, concerns about addiction in this population are now characterized by an interesting paradox. Although the lay public and inexperienced clinicians still fear the development of addiction when opioids are used to treat cancer pain, specialists in cancer pain and palliative care widely believe that the major problem related to addiction is the persistent undertreatment of pain driven by inappropriate fear of addiction.





The experience in the cancer population has contributed to a desire for a reappraisal of the risks and benefits associated with the long-term opioid treatment of chronic nonmalignant pain.The traditional view of this therapy is negative. Early surveys, which noted that a relatively large proportion of addicts began their addiction as medical patients who received opioid drugs for pain, provided some indirect support for this perspective




The most influential of these surveys recorded a history of medical opioid use for pain in 27% of white male addicts and 1.2% of black male addicts. Surveys of addict populations, however, do not provide a valid measure of the addiction susceptibility associated with chronic opioid therapy in populations without known abuse histories.




Prospective patient surveys are needed to define this risk accurately. The Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Project evaluated 11,882 inpatients who had no histories of addiction and were administered an opioid while hospitalized; only four cases of addiction could be identified subsequently.



A national survey of burn centers could find no cases of addiction in a sample of more than 10,000 patients without histories of drug abuse who were administered opioids for pain, and a survey of a large headache clinic identified opioid abuse in only 3 of 2,369 patients admitted for treatment, most of whom had access to opioids. Other data suggest that the typical patient with chronic pain differs significantly enough from the addict without painful disease that the risk of addiction during therapy for pain is low.



For example, surveys of cancer patients and postoperative patients indicate that euphoria (a phenomenon believed to be common during the abuse of opioids) is extremely uncommon following administration of an opioid for pain; dysphoria is observed more typically in those who receive meperidine Although the psychiatric comorbidity identified in addict populations could be an effect, rather than a cause, of the aberrant drug taking, the association suggests the existence of psychologic risk factors for addiction.




The likelihood of genetically determined risk factors for addiction has also been suggested by a twin study that demonstrated a significant concordance rate for aberrant drug-related behaviors. Overall, the evidence generally supports the idea that opioid therapy in patients with chronic pain and no histories of abuse or addiction can be undertaken with a very low risk of these adverse outcomes.




This is particularly so in the older patient, who has had ample time to reveal a propensity for abuse. There is no substantive support that large numbers of individuals with no personal or family histories of abuse or addiction, no affiliations with substance-abusing subcultures, and no significant premorbid psychopathologies will develop abuse or addiction when administered potentially abusable drugs for medical indications.



The inaccurate perception that opioid therapy always has a high likelihood of addiction has encouraged assumptions that are not supportable in populations with no histories of substance abuse. For example, agonist-antagonist opioid analgesics are less likely to be abused by addicts than pure mu agonist opioids. Consequently, some clinicians view the agonist-antagonist drugs as safer in terms of addiction liability.




There is no evidence for this conclusion in populations without drug abuse histories. Extensive experience with long-term opioid therapy for cancer pain and chronic nonmalignant pain has relied on pure mu agonists.


Similarly, there is a common perception that short-acting oral opioids and opioids delivered by the parenteral route carry a greater risk of addiction because of the rapid delivery of the drug. Again, these perceptions are derived from observations in the healthy addict population and are not relevant to the treatment of pain in medical patients with no histories of substance abuse.