Effects of Alcoholism in breast feeding mothers

May 30, 2015

Effects of Alcoholism in breast feeding mothers: Does Mom’s Drinking Harm Breastfed Babies?

Effects of Alcoholism in breast feeding mothers. In this case both the mother and the baby are negatively affected

Children are not just gifts but are blessings that everyone would desire to have. When we are privileged to get them the laws of the land tasks us with their care, protection and well upbringing. Those who don’t have them live in great hopes of getting at least one in the near future. What surprises many is the way some parents fail to appreciate the priceless value of children they have more so to those parents who are intoxicating their lives with alcohol. If alcohol can cause one to neglect her own children, then to such a person of what benefit is alcohol? Surely the effects of alcoholism in breast feeding mothers cannot be this cruel. The purpose of this article is to dig deep into the injustices that we cause our young ones all in the name of misuse of alcohol. If you have been with us on this link, you must have come a cross from our previous posting where doctor Akoury in total disbelief could not understand why in a town the number of bars outnumbered the combined total of schools, churches, hospitals and mosque. This is a worrying trend because young children and the unborn children become the grater losers. Unborn children get hooked up in alcohol direct from their mothers’ wombs and young growing children suffer neglect. If all these are blamed on alcohol abuse, then what is good in alcohol if it is used like a sweeping broom to clear a whole generation!

Now let me bring it more closer to you for better understanding. Supposing you were walking along the way and you meet a young lady drunk disorderly with her seated next to her not knowing what is going on what would that register in your mind? And let say after that unbelievable sight you proceeded with your journey and decided to branch at you usual joint for one or two before finally leaving for home. Then when you get to the joint you see a breast feeding mother drinking one after the other and at the same time trying to pay attention to her young baby what would ring in your mind? I don’t know what is in your mind but ordinarily the sight of a mother breastfeeding while drinking a glass of wine no doubt has garnered disapproving stares and maybe some choice words from passersby.

These are some of the reasons that guided doctor Dalal Akoury’s decision into to creating a medical center (AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center) whose main objective is to transform each individual’s life through increasing awareness about health and wellness and by empowering individuals to find their own inner healing power. Because knowledge is power doctor Akoury is using this platform to spread the message of hope to all addicts male and female. It is through informing people that those in the dark may get to the light and opt for assistance. I know that denial is a very big threat in this journey and so even if you want to bring everybody on board it may not possible, but if just one person take the heed and accepts to be rehabilitated, and this individual goes through the treatment program successfully, that would be an achievement. Remember that when one is affected the whole household grief’s and in the same way when one has been successfully rehabilitated the benefits extends to the whole family and the community as well. Your health is our command and that is why Dr. Akoury’s practice focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of patching up symptoms what an opportunity you have to start all over again. It is never too late nor is it too early to seek for help schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury today and be the next beneficiary of comfortable and healthy life that is free from any traces of addiction.

Doctor Akoury further explains that it is not recommended to drink excessively while nursing because of the passage of the alcohol into the mummery breast milk. It is important to note that excessive alcohol while breastfeeding is not only harmful to a baby who is breastfeeding but also life threatening. However at the moment it is not very easy to conclusively tell the extent of how much harm, because many of the women who drink excessively after [delivery] are those who have already been drinking excessively while they were nursing pregnancy.

Effects of Alcoholism in breast feeding mothers: Drink in moderation

It is one thing that has not been achieved by many more so when making reference to substances which are this addictive. I am talking about the policy of moderate drinking. It is very easy to say moderate and it is all a different ball game to have it implemented. It is no wonder that when you listen to the media content these days you can only scratch your head. All that is in the news is that Madam X or Y was charged with child neglect because they were extremely intoxicated with alcoholic substances. Such news makes you wonder whether it’s OK for a nursing mother to be subjected to such penalties of jail terms. Are they candidates for jails or for a rehab centre? It would be appropriate for such mothers to be first molded into moderate drinking and progressively clear off their intoxication.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Breastfeeding mothers should avoid the use of alcoholic beverages, because alcohol is concentrated in breast milk and its use can inhibit milk production. An occasional celebratory single, small alcoholic drink is acceptable, but breastfeeding should be avoided for 2 hours after the drink.”

Large amounts of alcohol via mother’s milk can cause drowsiness, weakness, and decreases in growth and other health issues in babies.

In terms of long-term effects on infants, limited information is available, according to guidelines developed by the Sonoma County Breastfeeding Coalition and the Sonoma County Perinatal Alcohol and Other Drug Action Team in 2008. The guidelines highlight a 1989 study that showed chronic exposure to alcohol via a lactating mom (even if she has as little as one drink daily) can have detrimental effects on the infant’s motor development.

Effects of Alcoholism in breast feeding mothers: Keep breastfeeding

Alcohol levels in breast milk peak about 30 minutes to an hour after drinking alcohol (on an empty stomach). And as mom’s blood alcohol level drops, so does that of breast milk because the alcohol is diffusing back into the bloodstream that is according to research published in 1995 in the Journal of Human Lactation. Therefore “pumping and dumping,” in which nursing mothers use a breast pump to suck out some milk and proceed to ditch it before letting infants latch on, might not do the trick.

More than 75 percent of U.S. mothers today breastfeed either exclusively or in combination with infant formula for a period of up to six weeks. But after that the numbers drop off, and when infants reach six months, only 15 percent to 16 percent of mother’s breastfeed exclusively. The good news is that most people who breastfeed choose to breastfeed because they are concerned and interested in the health and well-being of their child, so the overwhelming majority of women who breastfeed, and if they do drink any alcohol they do so in moderation, so there’s no problem.

Effects of Alcoholism in breast feeding mothers: Does Mom’s Drinking Harm Breastfed Babies?

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs

May 11, 2015

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs: Cola Plant Being the Source

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs offers the greatest threat of life

If you have been with us on this link for sometimes now, you must be aware that, the families of cocaine drugs are some of the most addictive substance in the world. These drugs are very dangerous both to the patients and even to their loved ones. That danger is not doing the economies of the world any justice and that is why we want to enter into this discussion of the addictiveness of cocaine family of drugs in our families, neighborhoods and the general societies at large. In our previous articles doctor Dalal Akoury took us through the origin of cocaine, and just a brief recoup, she mentioned that cocaine is a white powder refined from the coca plant which grows mainly in South America and the Asian continent.

Experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury indicates that users of this drug have a common characteristic on how they administer cocaine into their systems. Under normal circumstances, it is usually spread on a smooth surface such as glass and cut up with a razor blade to form a thin lines or trails which can then be sniffed up through a makeshift straw such as a banknote. Snorting is actually one of the most common forms of consumption although there are some other ways too like injection and smoking. It is easily absorbed through the lining of the nose. However if this method is used repeated (snorting), a lot of damages can be caused on the membranes of the nose which may also perforate the nasal septum which is the barrier separating one side of the nose and the other. These damages can be avoided only if you chose to do the right thing. Like for instance scheduling for an appointment with doctor Akoury will be a step in the right direction for your full recovery.

Cocaine and crack speed up the body in a similar way to amphetamines, but the effect is shorter and more intense – less than an hour for cocaine and as short as several minutes for crack. As with amphetamines, cocaine releases an intense rush of energy, makes a person feel good, mentally sharp, talkative and confident. When blood levels begin to dive, the craving is often overwhelming to take more. And just like with all drugs and life experiences, the greater the high, the worse the fall.

The early euphoric experience disappears in heavy users, who can feel very restless, with nausea, excitability, extreme agitation, anxiety, and paranoia and possible hallucinations. It is important to note that very high doses can rarely cause heart failure, convulsions and death. Regular cocaine users often have interrupted sleep patterns. They feel unable to cope until they’ve had some Charlie, stressed-out and irritable. Life for weekend users can become a process of trying to get through the week until Friday. Regular users may feel that they cannot have a “good time” without the drug. Stopping the drug produces terrible headaches, tiredness, nausea, sleepiness and depression.

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs: Crack

Free basing (smoking) is done by mixing cocaine with other substances and sodium hydroxide. The salt base then dissolves leaving granules of pure cocaine which can be smoked in a pipe. The vapors in the lung hit the brain in eight seconds, producing a massive high which only lasts for ten minutes, after which the desire to have more is experienced and that is why people become very much addicted to these substances. Besides that cocaine and crack can also be used during sex to prolong sex in a man by acting as a local anesthetic on the genitalia.

The other problem with these drugs is that which directly affects the unborn babies commonly known as crack babies. This has been a great concern in most nations like in the US for example; a study conducted by NIDA established that up to 200,000 of substance abuse in pregnancy is crack or cocaine. Doctor Akoury reiterates that the effect on babies can be very fatal. Some of the known risk may include: premature labour, stillbirth, low birth weight, ectopic pregnancy, sudden infant death and small size at birth. Now the fatality of these drugs can affect the babies for life, like for instance such children may have permanent mental damage from the effects of what happened to them while in the womb. It must also be known that cocaine and alcohol can be a very hazardous combination since the human liver combines coca and alcohol metabolites to form new cocktails which are toxic.

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs: Crack related violence

In terms of reputation crack has nothing to be admired since it has all along been associated with extreme violence due to the obvious reasons like for instance, cocaine is highly addictive and the habit is expensive so large amounts of money are needed to keep a user happy and stakes are high for people seeking to control a distribution network area. The drug itself can cause anxiety, fear and paranoia, and when knives or guns are around, murder can easily be the result.

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs: Crack rehabilitation

This is one thing that has been very difficult and challenging. Crack addiction can be very hard in the sense that even attracting users into treatment programs can be a real challenge. Cocaine users are often very different culturally from heroin users and often prefer to keep well apart. Crack clients can be far more aggressive and instantly demanding than heroin users, and many drugs services find it hard to respond. Crack users are not offered substitute medication the equivalent to methadone for heroin users. Many crack users are black and feel uncomfortable in a white dominated support center. Finally, paranoia itself can fuel natural suspicions of authority.

So then, crack and cocaine are real threats even if their use is more limited than some feared it would be. Fashions in drug culture come and go. Expect further surges in crack consumption in particular groups over the next couple of decades with decline in others. Each wave of experimentation leaves a hard core of chronic addicts. They are a small minority of those who have ever used the drug but are a large part of the market.

The Addictiveness of Cocaine Family of Drugs: Cola Plant Being the Source

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers

May 8, 2015

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: The Experts Opinion

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers indicates that cancer and alcohol abuse are never a good combination and nothing good can come from their association

In our previous article we dealt with the effects of alcohol and cancer risk and in particular we were able to disclose who the use of alcohol increases the risk of contracting head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer and breast cancer. You realize that these are not the only types of cancer that are closely associated with alcohol consumption. In this article we are going to further onto the discussion but this time focusing on the research findings on alcohol consumption and cancer. When research is done, what follows is getting the outcome of that research. In this line of duty a lot of studies have been done primarily to establish if there is any association between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer. And other than what we discussed previously, the risk is not as evident in other cancers like cancers of the pancreas, ovary, prostate, stomach, uterus, and bladder. Therefore in these cancers cases, studies have not established any close association with alcohol or where there is evidence it was inconsistent.

However, for two cancers renal cell (kidney) cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) multiple studies have shown that increased alcohol consumption is associated with a decreased risk of cancer. A meta-analysis of the NHL studies (which included 18,759 people with NHL) found a 15 percent lower risk of NHL among alcohol drinkers compared with nondrinkers. The mechanisms by which alcohol consumption would decrease the risks of either renal cell cancer or NHL are not understood.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: How does alcohol increase the risk of cancer?

Doctor Akoury in response to this question acknowledges that several studies have in the past established numerous ways through which alcohol consumption may increase the risk of cancer. She shares with as some of them as follows:

Metabolizing (breaking down) ethanol in alcoholic drinks to acetaldehyde, which is a toxic chemical and a probable human carcinogen; acetaldehyde can damage both DNA (the genetic material that makes up genes) and proteins
Generating reactive oxygen species (chemically reactive molecules that contain oxygen), which can damage DNA, proteins, and lipids (fats) through a process called oxidation
Impairing the body’s ability to break down and absorb a variety of nutrients that may be associated with cancer risk, including vitamin A; nutrients in the vitamin B complex, such as folate; vitamin C; vitamin D; vitamin E; and carotenoids
Increasing blood levels of estrogen, a sex hormone linked to the risk of breast cancer

Alcoholic beverages may also contain a variety of carcinogenic contaminants that are introduced during fermentation and production, such as nitrosamines, asbestos fibers, phenols, and hydrocarbons.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: How does the combination of alcohol and tobacco affect cancer risk?

Epidemiologic research shows that people who use both alcohol and tobacco have much greater risks of developing cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx (throat), larynx, and esophagus than people who use either alcohol or tobacco alone. In fact, for oral and pharyngeal cancers, the risks associated with using both alcohol and tobacco are multiplicative; that is, they are greater than would be expected from adding the individual risks associated with alcohol and tobacco together.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: Can a person’s genes affect their risk of alcohol-related cancers?

The answer to this question is yes. It is actually true that a person’s risk of alcohol-related cancers can be influenced by their genes, and specifically when the genes that encode the enzymes is involved in metabolizing that is breaking down of alcohol. For example, one way the body metabolizes alcohol is through the activity of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH. Many individuals of Chinese, Korean, and especially Japanese descent carry a version of the gene for ADH that codes for a “super-active” form of the enzyme. This super-active ADH enzyme speeds the conversion of alcohol (ethanol) to toxic acetaldehyde. As a result, when people who have the super-active enzyme drink alcohol, acetaldehyde builds up. Among people of Japanese descent, those who have this super-active ADH have a higher risk of pancreatic cancer than those with the more common form of ADH.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: Can drinking red wine help prevent cancer?

Researchers conducting studies using purified proteins, human cells, and laboratory animals have found that certain substances in red wine, such as resveratrol, have anticancer properties. Grapes, raspberries, peanuts, and some other plants also contain resveratrol. However, clinical trials in humans have not provided evidence that resveratrol is effective in preventing or treating cancer. Few epidemiologic studies have looked specifically at the association between red wine consumption and cancer risk in humans.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: What happens to cancer risk after a person stops drinking alcohol?

Most of the studies that have examined whether cancer risk declines after a person stops drinking alcohol have focused on head and neck cancers and on esophageal cancer. In general, these studies have found that stopping alcohol consumption is not associated with immediate reductions in cancer risk; instead, it may take years for the risks of cancer to return to those of never drinkers.

For example, a pooled analysis of 13 case-control studies of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx combined found that alcohol-associated cancer risk did not begin to decrease until at least 10 years after stopping alcohol drinking. Even 16 years after they stopped drinking alcohol, the risk of cancer was still higher for ex-drinkers than for never drinkers.

In several studies, the risk of esophageal cancer was also found to decrease slowly with increasing time since stopping alcohol drinking. A pooled analysis of five case–control studies found that the risk of esophageal cancer did not approach that of never drinkers for at least 15 years after stopping alcohol drinking.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: Is it safe for someone to drink alcohol while undergoing cancer chemotherapy?

Cancer is a killer disease and alcohol is equally very bad for your health even if you were not struggling with cancer. What benefit can one get from alcohol especially when you are also on cancer treatment? Certainly nothing good will come out of it. However if you are so much into alcohol and you feel like you cannot get along without drinking, then you must and timely consult with your doctor. Your doctor who has been administering treatment on you will able to advice you professionally on specific issues including whether drinking whether drinking alcohol is safe with particular chemotherapy drugs or other medications prescribed along with chemotherapy. Nonetheless you can also seek for professional help from other medical experts like doctor Dalal Akoury, all you need to do is to call her for an appointment and she will gladly give you her best from her experience of over two decades of practice.

Research Findings on alcohol consumption and cancers: The Experts Opinion

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats

May 6, 2015

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats: The Dangers it brings on your Health

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats. It can be administered to the body either through injection, snorting or smoking.

The history of cocaine is well known and how it affects the good health of our societies. Cocaine is a very powerful addictive stimulant drug that when allowed to settle in anyone’s life, then devastations and frustrations will follow as the immediate consequences. Whichever way you look at it, cocaine is not good. No single advantage can be attached to this drug. As a matter of fact cocaine and crack abuse are great threats of life. The powdered hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or injected as a solution of water. And when we talk of crack cocaine, it means that, this cocaine base has not been neutralized by an acid to transform it into a hydrochloride salt. When that is done, this form of cocaine comes in a rock crystal which can be heated to produce vapors, a product which can be smoked. The term “crack” therefore refers to the crackling sound produced by the rock as it is heated.

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats: How is Cocaine Abused?

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, cocaine abuse is in most cases considered in relation to the mode of its administration. There are three main routes that are commonly used and they may include the following:

Snorting – this is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues.
Injection – in this case cocaine in mixed with water and the solution is then injected into the body using the needle to release the drug directly into the blood streams.
Smoking – this involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs, where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection.

Irrespective of which method you choose, the dangers remain the same and in all the methods of administration can lead to addiction and other chronic and severe health problems, including increasing the risk of contracting HIV and infectious diseases says doctor Akoury MD and also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center.

The intensity and duration of cocaine’s effects, which include increased energy, reduced fatigue, and mental alertness, depend on the route of drug administration.
The faster cocaine is absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the brain, the more intense the high.
Injecting or smoking cocaine produces a quicker, stronger high than snorting.
On the other hand, faster absorption usually means shorter duration of action.
The high from snorting cocaine may last 15 to 30 minutes, but the high from smoking may last only 5 to 10 minutes.

In order to sustain the high, a cocaine abuser has to administer the drug again. For this reason, cocaine is sometimes abused in binges taken repeatedly within a relatively short period of time, at increasingly high doses.

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats: Effects of Cocaine to the Brain

Without missing the words, cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that raises the levels of dopamine. This is a brain chemical which is associated with pleasure and movement, in the brain’s reward circuit. And because dopamine facilitates communication in some brain cell commonly known as neurons, therefore dopamine is released by neurons to respond to signals like the smell or taste of good food and then it is recycled back into the cell that releases it which in return will shut off the signal between neurons.

Cocaine acts by preventing the dopamine from being recycled, causing excessive amounts of dopamine to build up, amplifying the message, and ultimately disrupting normal communication. It is this excess of dopamine that is responsible for cocaine’s euphoric effects. With repeated use, cocaine can cause long-term changes in the brain’s reward system and in other brain systems as well, which may eventually lead to addiction. Further to this with repeated use, tolerance to the cocaine high also often develops. This has been confirmed from various reports that many cocaine addicts often seek to get high by consuming more but they fail to achieve as much pleasure as they use to from their first exposure. This means that some users choose to increase their dose in an attempt to intensify and prolong the euphoria, but this can also increase the risk of adverse psychological or physiological effects.

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats: The Adverse Effects of Cocaine on Health

There is no doubt that cocaine abuse impact on health negatively, like for instance:

Cocaine compresses blood vessels
Dilates eye pupils
Increases body temperature
Heart rate
Blood pressure

It can also cause headaches and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and nausea. And because cocaine tends to decrease appetite, chronic users can become malnourished as well.

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats: Effects based on the mode of administration

Like I had indicated before that, cocaine is administered in to the body primarily in there different ways. These methods of taking cocaine can produce different adverse effects. like for instance:

Regularly snorting cocaine, for example, can lead to loss of the sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and a chronically runny nose.
Ingesting cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene as a result of reduced blood flow.
Injecting cocaine can bring about severe allergic reactions and increased risk for contracting HIV and other blood-borne diseases.
Binge patterns of use may lead to irritability, restlessness, anxiety, and paranoia.
Cocaine abusers can suffer a temporary state of full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which they lose touch with reality and experience auditory hallucinations.

Doctor Akoury emphases that it doesn’t matter how it is administered or how frequently cocaine is used, in all these users can experience acute cardiovascular or cere-brovascular emergencies, such as a heart attack or stroke, which may cause sudden death. Remember that most cocaine-related deaths are often as result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest. All these can be brought to manageable levels if we all pool together and begin doing the right things. You may not know conclusively what to do and that is why doctor Akoury founder this health facility to help you stay healthy. You can schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury and together with her team of experts they will professionally offer lasting solution to your individual conditions.

Cocaine and Crack Abuse are great Threats: The Dangers it brings on your Health

The best treatment solutions for cocaine abusers

May 5, 2015

The best treatment solutions for cocaine abusers: Taking Cocaine head on

The best treatment solutions for cocaine abusers may include group therapy and counseling

Of the societal challenges we are faced with drug addiction is becoming one of the most disturbing one. When one member of the family is struggling with substance abuse, the whole family is concern and a lot of emotional and even physical frustrations are felt. What is worrying is the rate at which the population abusing drugs is increasing. There are several factors that can explain this but the sing denominator is that the increase is getting out of hand if something is not done to correct this. Looking at the impact of substance abuse in our neighborhoods doctor Dalal Akoury made a decision to form a health center whose objective would be to offer solutions to people abusing drugs. At this facility (AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center) doctor Akoury together with her team of experts are offering the best treatment solutions for cocaine abusers among other drug related cases. Therefore if you are struggling with drugs of whichever kind, then you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury today for treatment. In the meantime, let us consider some of the treatment options we have.

Information available indicates that just a few years ago in 2007, cocaine alone accounted for about 13 percent of all admissions to drug abuse treatment programs. The report also revealed that majority of these people sought treatment were mainly cocaine addicts and were also struggling with other drugs other than cocaine meaning that they were poly drug abusers. Doctor explains that the prevalence of cocaine has necessitated renewed efforts to develop treatment programs for cocaine across the globe. And just like with other drugs, cocaine is one of the complex diseases that involve biological changes in the brain as well as myriad social, familial, and other environmental problems. Therefore, a good treatment of cocaine addiction must be comprehensive, and strategies need to assess the neurobiological, social, and medical aspects of the patient’s drug abuse. Moreover, patients who have a variety of addictions often have other co-occurring mental disorders that require additional behavioral or pharmacological interventions.

The best treatment solutions for cocaine abusers: Cocaine Detoxification

For us to have better modes of treatment of cocaine addiction, we must first appreciate and acknowledge that we have a problem that needs to be fixed. No treatment can be successful if the patient is still in denial. It is a fact that patients addicted to cocaine or even other drugs will have a lot of toxic deposit in their systems. These toxics are the biggest problem that detoxification will be addressing in this article. Therefore medical detoxification is a process that systematically and safely withdraws people from addictive drugs. This is usually done under the care of trained physician. Drinking alcohol or using drugs can cause physical dependence over time and stopping them can result in withdrawal symptoms in people with this dependence. The detoxification process is designed to treat the immediate bodily effects of stopping drug use and to remove toxins left in the body as a result of the chemicals found in drugs or alcohol.

Even though as things stand now there is no proven pharmacologic therapy for cocaine addiction, so many kinds of medications have been used in the past in the detoxification of cocaine. It is however worth noting that withdrawal from chronic cocaine use may also result in anxiety, depression and intense cravings for the drugs you are trying to eliminate from your systems. Several types of medications address these issues in different ways. Like for instance:

Antidepressant drugs such as desipramine or a combination of phentermine and fenfluramine have been used to reduce cocaine withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and depression.
Benzodiazepines, tranquilizers such as Diazepam, have been used to reverse anxiety induced by cocaine withdrawal.
Amantadine, a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease, may be an effective treatment for cocaine-dependent patients with severe cocaine withdrawal symptoms and may reduce cocaine craving.
Bromocriptine, a drug that works on the brain’s dopamine system, has been used to decrease the craving for cocaine during detoxification and to reduce mood disturbance.
Propanolol, a beta-blocker drug used to treat high blood pressure, may be useful for severe cocaine withdrawal symptoms, as it slows down the effects of adrenaline, thereby calming the body’s “fight or flight” response to stressful situations.
This type of drug has been used to treat general anxiety and anxiety associated with alcohol withdrawal.
Propranolol’s lessening of symptoms such as palpitations and sweating has helped reduce cocaine craving. Its use, however, is not risk free in patients who have taken cocaine and can be associated with decreased blood flow to the heart and other changes that predispose patients to arrhythmia and a severe increase in blood pressure that can lead to a stroke.
Delayed toxic effects are possible. Any use of beta-blockers in this setting requires careful monitoring and caution.

The best treatment solutions for cocaine abusers: Behavioral Interventions

Many behavioral treatments for cocaine addiction have proven to be effective in both residential and outpatient settings. Indeed, behavioral therapies are often the only available and effective treatments for many drug problems, including stimulant addictions. However, the integration of behavioral and pharmacological treatments may ultimately prove to be the most effective approach. Presently, there are no proven medications to treat cocaine addiction. Nonetheless a lot of efforts are being made by NIDA to identify and test new medications.

One form of behavioral therapy that is showing positive results in cocaine-addicted populations is contingency management, or motivational incentives (MI). MI may be particularly useful for helping patients achieve initial abstinence from cocaine and for helping patients stay in treatment. Programs use a voucher or prize-based system that rewards patients who abstain from cocaine and other drug use. On the basis of drug-free urine tests, the patients earn points, or chips, which can be exchanged for items that encourage healthy living, such as a gym membership, movie tickets, or dinner at a local restaurant. This approach has recently been shown to be practical and effective in community treatment programs.

Finally it is important that patients receive only services that match all of their treatment needs. For example, if a patient is unemployed, it may be helpful to provide vocational rehabilitation or career counseling along with addiction treatment. If a patient has marital problems, it may be important to offer couples counseling. These and more are some of the services we offer at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. When you schedule for that appointment with doctor Akoury, up on carrying out an evaluation on you, she will put you on a tailored treatment program that will directly meet your addiction needs.

Tag Archives: Alcohol and cocaine