Category Archives: Addiction Courses

Trump works the crowd after a rally at the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa in Hilton Head Island

Trump’s Brother Died of Addiction

March 15, 2016

Trump’s Brother Died of Addiction

Trump's brother died of addictionAddiction is something of a big deal. It always starts with a try, a ‘shot’, a sip, or just a little bit and then just like fire, it grows bigger and becomes something uncontrollable by the ones affected. Donald Trump’s brother was one of such individuals. His name is Fred, popularly called Freddy. Donald J. Trump, currently running for President of the United States of America said the death of his brother had taught him that bad choices could drag down people who are destined to rise and that such event had taught him to stay away from alcohol and cigarettes. Trump’s brother died of addiction and so are many that don’t get to make the news daily.

Addiction is something of a big deal and should not be swept under the carpet. It should be tackled heads on as soon as possible because it tends to get harder to deal with after successive failures of trying to quit. People who have been addicted to substance misuse will agree that several times they have tried to quit but every time they seem to fail and it gets harder to summon up courage to attempt quitting all over again.

We have heard many stories, Trump’s brother is just one of them, of how addiction has destroyed promising lives in our society. There have been reports of the extent an addict will go to and the crazy things they wouldn’t mind doing just to lay their hands on drugs, crack and alcohol, all these serving as tales to caution those who are treading the same path.

Questions don’t cease coming about what causes addiction and how it works. Can deny addiction mean one is addicted? Is addiction caused by exposure to certain drugs or substances alone? The questions are endless when it comes to drug and alcohol use prevention measures. In order to get an individual to stop the substance abuse, there are certain pitfalls which are often overstated and this can also generate feelings of distrust.

How Addiction Works

People get addicted or hooked to a substance or certain activity for the same reason they tried the substance or activity in the first place  – there is a good feeling attached to it. While so many people have tried drugs, drinks and foods and were never addicted to it, it is worthy of note that all humans are prone to addiction in some way. Different things just tend to affect different people differently. Given the right amount and exposure, everyone could be an addict. Before addiction can happen, a substance user must have crossed a threshold and strayed into dependence on the substance.

Research has thrown light on what actually takes place in the brain after an individual transits and crosses this threshold. It is more like a ‘brain disease’. According to Dr. Scott Glassman, “addiction is simply the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of displeasure”. An individual gets exposed to a substance and likes the feeling it brings. Maybe this substance reduces pains or make the individual feel numb or forget every worry. After a certain period of continuous exposure, the brain tolerates and gets used to this substance. The resultant effect is that more of such a substance will be needed to bring that initial ‘good feeling’ the individual had. Progressive increase in doses increases the level of addiction till there is a craving that is constantly beyond control. Then the threshold is crossed and the individual can do nothing meaningful without exposure to this substance or activity.

 

Don’t Criticize Addicted People, They Need Help

Donald Trump’s brother died of addiction because he didn’t get the right help. Freddie could have made it if he wasn’t just criticized and talked down upon to “do something good with his life!” Definitely, every addicted person wants to be free. No one loves chains! It may look like they don’t want to because they keep going back to the things that held them addicted but the truth is, the substance is like “life” or breath to an addicted person; they need it to stay alive. That’s how the brain now sees the substance. Their judgment of what is right or wrong has been compromised. That is why they need help. They need help of family and friends. They do not need criticisms and long sermons on how they are living a life that is destined for destruction. What they need is love and someone who can stand by them till they are completely rehabilitated.

How to Get Help

There are several kinds of help for different levels and kinds of addiction. Addiction treatments range from detoxification to medication to combat withdrawal symptoms, to group therapy for varying lengths of time. There is no on-size-fits-all treatment for addiction. Consultations has to be made with experts in this area and the proper kind of help administered.

 

 

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substance-use

Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

March 12, 2016

Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

substance abuseSelecting the appropriate addiction treatment option is very crucial. The individual suffering from substance use may only have one shot at recovery as there are no guarantees that they will ever gather-up the motivation to try quitting substance use again. Unfortunately however, there have been many reported cases where people have attempted quitting but have ended up with a treatment that wasn’t the best for them. In order to ensure that better choices are made when choosing the best treatment to give someone with substance disorders, adequate information is very important. The data gathered about the individual and the treatment option has to be reliable and dependable. By selecting an evidence-based treatment option for substance use disorders, the individual is set in the best position where it is much likely for them to enter a path that leads to recovery.

Definition of Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

Whenever people do online searches for possible treatment options for substance use, they will find many possible treatment options which may be overwhelming. Aggravating the issue is the fact that many of these treatment practices are pure scams or a little more than scams. Some of these results promise the individuals instant results simply by drinking some herbs, swallowing some pill or by wearing some special necklace. Evidence based treatments are therefore put in place to ensure that the individual trying to quit addiction is placed next to the best options or resources that could help them in their journey to freedom.

Evidence Levels to Guide the EBT Practices

All types of evidence cannot be treated equally by professionals; some will get more attention than the others. Data obtained from subjective or anecdotal approaches are considered to be of lesser value as against data obtained from objective scientific approaches or researches. Now this is not to mean that subjective or anecdotal evidence is not of important use because they are but there are challenges with information proceeding from such sources. Such problems as human biases and errors are common with such methods. There are different evidence levels that can be assigned to Substance use Disorder treatments and they include:

Level 1: Indicates evidence that proceeds from true experimental designs and that includes trials performed in the clinic that include some kind of randomization.

Level 2: Indicates evidence that proceeds from quasi-experimental designs that includes no kind of randomization

Level 3: Talks about evidence emanating from professional consensus. For instance, a professional community may believe that a particular treatment works better than the other.

Level 4: Speaks of evidence that proceeds from qualitative literature reviews and publications that of good authority

Level 5: Indicates anecdotal information involving personal experiences and accounts.

From the above, evidence proceeding from Level 1 is of the utmost importance and value while evidence at Level 5 has the least value.

 

Issues with Anecdotal Evidence

Normally in life, humans tend to learn easily from other people’s personal stories and experiences. It is really simple, people tend to connect real time when someone is talking about what they are going through presently. The belief is there that the person is telling the truth and as such their personal experiences can be related to. It makes it easier to learn from the errors and mistakes such people had in order to avoid the pains they went through and wasted time. However, it is also very natural for humans to think anecdotally that thinking scientifically and there are problems with such thinking such as:

  • Human have been absolutely wired to locate connections between things even when these connections may not actually be there
  • The ways people find interpretation to things they have been through and what has happened to them is extremely affected by personal biases. What this means that even when the same event happen to similar kinds of people, their interpretation of the event might be absolutely different.
  • Humans sometimes have hidden motives and their interpretation of their evidence may be to support these hidden motives.
  • People, more often than not, tend to select experiences and information that best suits what they already believe as their reality.
  • In many ways, the human sense can be compromised and this means events can be inaccurately interpreted and this can be a big problem for those whose only reliance is on eye witness testimonies.
  • Humans possess a subconscious confirmation bias which means that they are much more likely to pay attention to things that relates to what they already believe as their reality and miss things that prove their belief otherwise.

For the above reasons, anecdotal evidences when treating Substance use disorders are taken with a pinch of salt.

substance use

Examples of Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

Below are some of the best evidence based treatment practices for substance use disorders:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This is a psychotherapeutic approach to the treatment of substance use disorders. Many studies have shown and proven the efficacy of this approach when dealing with addictions.
  • The Matrix Model: This is also one of the effective Evidence based treatments used in treating the misuse of stimulants. This employs education and encouragement practices to help the individual recover.
  • The Community Reinforcement Approach: This approach seeks to provide supports for the addicted individual within a common community of addicted people who are trying to recover. This is usually combined with a reward scheme that rewards people who can abstain for a certain period of time.
  • Drugs such as topiramate, acamprosate and disulfiram have been confirmed very useful pharmaceutical agents that are evidence backed when treating substance use disorders. Disulfiram, for instance, make people feel sick when they drink alcohol.
  • The 12 Step Facilitation Therapy is a kind of EBT that encourages addicted individuals to participate in a 12 step program.
  • Motivational Enhancement Therapy: This used a counselling approach which is aimed primarily at increasing the individual’s motivation to quit substance misuse. This involves motivating the individual to see themselves in a positive light and see themselves as being able to quit addiction.

It is very imperative for clinicians and health professionals to employ evidence based practices in treatment of substance use disorders as this helps to greatly improve the chances of the addicted individual’s recovery and prevents the possibility of them retracting and sinking deeper into addiction.

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Opioid-Abuse

Challenges in Using Opioids to Treat Pain in Persons With Substance Use Disorders

March 11, 2016

OpioidsMore often than not, pain and abuse of substance exist together and their co-existence makes treatment of one without the other difficult. In most cases, if the pain is to be addressed, then the substance abuse has to be dealt with first. Opioids are compounds that look like opium in their addictive properties or psychological effects. They are sometimes used as pain relief whenever patients are in severe pains and other pain reliefs seem to be inefficient. Opioids are narcotics and as such are to be used moderately to prevent addiction. This is why when there are cases with patients who are already used to substance abuse, using Opioids tends to just aggravate the problem of substance use. These challenges in using opioids to treat pain in persons with substance use disorders are what this article seeks to talk about.

Pain and Substance use

16 to 24 percent of Americans have been reported to have problems with alcohol abuse. 8% out of the total American population, from 12 years and older, do have a problem with illicit use of substance within a given month. Substance use disorders have been seen to be more significant in medical populations. For instance, 19 to 26% of hospitalized patients have substance use disorders, 40 to 60% are people that have sustained a major trauma, 5 to 67% are those who have been or are being treated for depression. From the above, it can be seen that the treatment of chronic pain poses challenges as the patient may just pick up an appetite which may be hard to shake off, long after their stay in the hospital.

Clinical and Ethical Challenges

Persons who have had a history with substance use are less likely to have an effective pain treatment. It is not as if the pain treatment is not effective but because such people are used to substances which have considerably altered or increased their tolerance and adaptability for such substances, even the most potent pain relief in their right doses will appear ineffective. This is where opioids come in.

Mild to moderate pains can easily be taken care of with physical modalities such as ice, rest and splints but when pains are severe, opioids appear to be one effective way of managing them. Clinicians are however concerned that opioids may be misused by patients. Opioids use in patients with substance use disorders does not only raise complex clinical issues, it also raises ethical issues. This is where the challenge lies. Principles of justice and beneficence demands that all persons have equal access to an effective pain treatment. However tension sets in when such persons are used to substance as the principle of non-maleficence asks that a medical practitioner ‘do no harm’ first when there are concerns about misuse which may cause harmful consequences.

Multidimensional Nature of Pain

Pain is multidimensional in nature. This is another challenge posed to treatment of pain. Pain is subjective, rather than objective, making it hard to actually verify if it exists. Since they are transferred by sensory and emotional experience, one can actually have pains without any physical signs that corroborate this. Therefore, since pain cannot be verified to be existent or not, it is advised that all clinicians attend to all cases of pain seriously. Some patients have the knowledge of this and may often feign pain in order to obtain opioids for non-pain related cases. Also, a patient with addiction who also has pains may not be able to properly coordinate or tell where the pain ends and a craving for opioids begins because actually, it may feel the same way. For instance, pain complaints come with distress calls, and when craving starts as well, the patient may show signs of serious distress. The chronic pain disorders’ spectrum as against addictive disorders is the same for everyone making it hard for actually append treatments accordingly. In patients with no past history of substance abuse, administering opioids is a whole lot easier than when it has to be administered to patients who history of substance abuse because it is very hard to tell when they are actually in need of opioids for pains.

In cases where clinicians are not sure, they have been taught to ask questions such as asking the patient how intense the pain is and asking them to describe their pains on the scale of 0 to 10. Sometimes, this may be useful in knowing the intensity of pain and at other times, some other methods needs to be worked up. In cases where pain seems to be persistent, not only the pain is assessed, the impact it will have on the individual receiving pain treatments will also have to be accessed. Such impacts as how it affects sleep, mood, stress level, work functions and recreational activities.

The challenges in using opioids in treating pains in persons with substance use disorders is high and complex and in most cases, clinician tend to evaluate the results. If the patient seems to get better by the use of Opioids, they should generally not be too concerned about the addiction. What can be done is to supervise the use on a short-term basis.

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How-Drug-Addiction-Affects-Serotonin-And-Dopamine

Serotonin complications And Drug Addiction

February 28, 2016

Serotonin complications And Drug Addiction: What You Should Know

Did you know that you were a potential addict even before you decided to grab that bottle of beer? Well, this might be confusing to you especially, if you are an addict fond of blaming others for your problems. Have you ever asked yourself why you can’t control your addiction? Clearly, addiction and slavery are two things you can’t easily separate. Once you become an addict, you can’t come out of it. This is because, you don’t even have a clue what might happen if you stop smoking, drinking or even stop having sex. Even as we progress into the discussion we will be looking at serotonin complications and drug addiction and help you appreciate the need to keep healthy.

Serotonin complications And Drug Addiction: The Truth Behind Addiction

Several studies in the past made it quite clear that various neurochemicals had a big impact on drug addiction. According to recent studies, Serotonin complications has proven to be a worthy candidate in finding a better solution to drug addiction. The studies showed that not everyone who continuously uses a drug becomes an addict. It was also realized that the rate of addiction varied between individuals for examples, there are those who became addicted earlier than others. The most disturbing question was, why others became addicted while others didn’t. It was realized that it was possible for that lower serotonin levels in the brain was the cause of addiction. To get a clear understanding what this means here is a brief overview of why Serotonin complications are a vital factor to consider when dealing with addiction and recovery.

Serotonin

What exactly is serotonin?

Serotonin is simply one of the vital compounds created in the body. It exists in serum and blood and mainly functions as a neurotransmitter. Serotonin has seven receptors that include a total of 14 subtypes that perform several functions in ensuring that your body functions as it should. Below are the subtypes

 

Serotonin sub-types

HTR1A: Addiction, Aggression, Anxiety, Appetite, Autoreceptor, Blood

Pressure, Cardiovascular Function, Emesis, Heart Rate, Impulsivity, Memory, Mood, Nausea, Nociception, Penile Erection, Pupil Dilation, Respiration, Sexual Behaviour and Sleep

  1. HTR1B: Addiction (potentially modulating), Anxiety, Appetite, Cognition,

Imagination, Learning, Memory, Mood, Perception, Sexual Behaviour, Sleep, Thermoregulation, Vasoconstriction.

  • HTR1D: Anxiety, Autoreceptor, Locomotion and Vasoconstriction
  1. HTR1E:
  2. HTR1F: Migraine
  3. HTR2A: Addiction (potentially modulating), anxiety, appetite, cognition,

imagination, learning, memory, Mood, perception, sexual behaviour, sleep, thermoregulation and Vasoconstriction

  • HTR2B: Anxiety, Appetite, cardiovascular function, GI motility, Sleep and

vasoconstriction.

  • HTR2C: Blood vessels, CNS, GI tract, Platelets, PNS, Smooth Muscle
  1. HTR3A: HTR3B, HTR3C, HTR3D, HTR3E: Addiction, Anxiety, Emesis, Gi

Motility, learning, memory and Nausea.

  1. HTR4: Anxiety, Appetite, Gi Motility, Learning, Memory, Mood and

Respiration.

  1. HTR5A: Autoreceptor, Locomotion and Sleep.
  • HTR5BP:
  • HTR6: Anxiety, Cognition, learning, memory and Mood.
  • HTR7: Anxiety, autoreceptor, memory, mood, respiration, sleep,

Thermoregulation, and vasoconstriction.

Serotonin sub-types can also be found in several supplements manufactured to treat various complications. What makes these subtypes important in drug addiction is the fact that their level in the body during the first phase of drug use is a greater determinant of whether the person using the drug will become an addict or not. It was discovered that lower levels of serotonin at the initial stages of drug use will trigger an addiction. It was also realized that high levels of serotonin could reduce chances of addiction. In addition, it was noted that Serotonin complications effect on addiction reduces as the drug use becomes frequent. Apart from impacting addiction directly, Serotonin has also proven to be a good remedy when dealing with the pre and post effects of drug addiction in several ways.

Serotonin complications And Drug Addiction: Benefit to drug addicts

Drug use, drug addiction and drug recovery are all determined by human behaviour. Most of the times, recovery from addiction becomes a problem when the addict isn’t in control of his or her behaviours. These behaviours are characterized by mood swings, anxiety, emotions and more. It was discovered that Serotonin plays a major role determining human behavioural and physiological processes, especially when under stress. These processes include changes in appetite, response to pain infliction, sexual behaviour, breathing, focus and more. Here are some of its benefits to addiction recovery.

Serotonin complications

Finding solutions to serotonin complications

Reduce anxiety: According to several studies, it was noted that anxiety is one of the things to watch out for when trying to do away with drug addiction especially for those who are recovering. Anxiety is one of the major causes of relapse that most recovered addicts fight to prevent. Serotonin is proven to play an important role in improving sleep, appetite, mood and lastly, anxiety that is also important when fighting relapse.

Serotonin as a mood booster: Another relapse trigger to watch out for when trying to recover from addiction is mood swings. If you aren’t in control of you moods then chances that you’ll try and save the situation by going back to drug abuse are high. This will automatically interfere with your addiction recovery progress. Serotonin plays a major role in ensuring that you have good moods and, as a result, helps in preventing relapse.

Helps you relax: Several studies showed that relaxation therapy played an important role in relapse prevention. Most people prefer doing what makes them feel happy when they are under stress with an aim of trying to relax. Drug addicts find drug use convenient and end up using it with an aim of dealing with stress. Serotonin has proven to stimulate relaxation that is vital to drug addiction recovery.

In summary, serotonin is one of the most vital neurotransmitters that works best in ensuring that human brain functions as it should. By doing this, Serotonin ensures that all the relapse triggers such as anxiety, impatience and any other thing that might invite relapse are out of the way hence vital for drug addiction recovery.

More on drug addiction recovery will take place at integrated addiction conference. If you are an addict or just interested in the subject matter, you are highly advised to attend the conference as it will cover almost everything you need to know about drug addiction that is currently affecting the whole world and how to recover from it. For more information visit the link below.

http://regenerativepotential.com/integrativeaddictionconference/

 

 

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AWAREmed Nurse Practitioner alleviates your Pain

Individual hormones description in male and female

February 27, 2016

Individual hormones description in male and female: The three common hormones

Individual hormones

Did you know that individual hormones like estrogen for example is normally production in specific areas like in the ovaries, the follicle around the ovum? If there is any problem, you can always seek for help.

There are several individual hormones in the body performing different functions in the body. we have since understood that hormones are body’s messengers responsible for the effective coordination of all vital repair, recovery and regeneration in the body and without them we cease to live a productive life, meaning that in their absence we simply degenerate. With that knowledge we want to zero in to discussing the individual hormones and particularly the three common ones which may include: estrogen, progesterone and testosterone as follows:

Individual hormones description in male and female: Estrogen

looking at the life of our female gender, the production of estrogen normally takes place in specific areas like in the ovaries, the follicle around the ovum, the adrenal glands, and the fat cells. And even as this production place, it is important to note that as age catches with us the effectiveness of ovaries in the production of estrogen deteriorates and stop producing estrogen on a regular basis, turning the main source for the production of estrogen the adrenal glands located above the kidneys. Any unused testosterone is also transformed into needed estrogen, and even estrogen stored in fat cells is called to action as the ovarian production of estrogen diminishes. Estrogen and progesterone are designed to balance each other, to keep each other in check. Therefore and because of that it is nearly impossible to separate their actions, but for the sake of simplicity; Estrogen makes everything grow, it causes cells to proliferate while progesterone checks this growth, holding cell growth to a limit. The following are some of the positive effects of its action are that it:

  • Causes the uterus lining grow to in readiness for pregnancy.
  • Facilitate the grown of breast tissues in preparation for making milk
  • Prevents bone destruction by bone-destroying cells (osteoclasts)
  • Protects from hypertension by relaxing the lining of blood vessels
  • Stimulates the production of lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme which breaks down fat. The result is low cholesterol levels and good balance between good (HDL) cholesterol and bad (LDL) cholesterol
  • Lowers insulin levels
  • Stimulates body fat accumulation to help the fetus grow
  • Induces relaxation of blood vessels in the circulation in general and heart in particular
  • Causes the ovum to mature inside the ovary to prepare for ovulation
  • Creates the follicle where the egg matures
  • Promotes the growth of the fetus
  • Keeps the vagina, the vulva and the cervix well developed and moisturized
  • Promotes growth of underarm and pubic hair, and pigmentation of the nipples

The negative effects of the growth induced by estrogen unopposed (acting alone), without the balancing effects of progesterone are:

  • Increased risk of gallbladder disease
  • Increased incidence of blood clot formation
  • Increased accumulation of body fat, this is why livestock growers use this hormone
  • Increased water and salt retention
  • Interference with normal insulin release and blood sugar control
  • Increased risk of overgrowth of endometrium (lining of the uterus)
  • Increased risk of overgrowth of breast tissue, and could be a reason for breast cancer
  • Increased risk of depression
  • Increased risk of headaches
  • Increased risk of gallbladder disease
  • Increased incidence of blood clot formation

Individual hormones description in male and female: Progesterone

Progesterone is the parent or precursor of estrogen in the ovaries and the parent to cortisol and aldosterone in the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands manufacture progesterone from its precursor cholesterol. Progesterone is the precursor of testosterone, all androgens, and other adrenal hormones, making it extremely important for reasons far beyond its role as sex hormone, without it we could not cope with stress and our body fluid and kidney control would cease to function. Progesterone functions:

  • Protect the endometrium
  • Insure the optimal function of uterus
  • Prevent water retention
  • Help use fat for energy at the cellular level
  • Serve as a natural anti-depressant
  • Create a calming effect on the body
  • Help eliminate sleep disorders
  • Help keep insulin release in check and maintain even blood sugar levels
  • Prevent unmediated overgrowth of the endometrium/cancer
  • Prevent unmediated breast tissue overgrowth/cancer
  • Maintain sex drive
  • Maintain normal blood clotting parameters
  • Protect against fibrocystic breasts

Progesterone’s negatives are few and easily balanced by estrogen:

  • A sedating effect, if used in excess
  • Increased spotting and changes in bleeding patterns
  • Bloating if used in excess
  • Gastrointestinal discomfort
  • Acne, if used in excess
  • Hyperpigmentation of facial skin when exposed to sunlight

Testosterone

The most important role of testosterone is to provide male characteristics. Although this may appear straight forward, testosterone functions are of significance to women as well. The following are some of the areas where testosterone helps in:

  • Promoting muscle strength and exercise endurance
  • Improving libido
  • Increasing energy levels
  • Improving sense of well-being
  • Increases body hair production
  • Produce enlargement of the clitoris
  • Improve sexual desire and fantasy
  • Improve bone density

Besides the benefits, it also have some demerits or negative effects of testosterone which cones due to overproduction or intake through either testosterone supplementation in pharmaceutical formulations or unsupervised androgen consumption. The side-effects are similar to those of estrogen dominance, since testosterone transforms into estrogen when it is overabundant. The side-effects include:

  • Male pattern baldness
  • Increased facial hair
  • More aggressive behavior
  • Higher cholesterol levels
  • Too much clitoral enlargement

Finally in the past this was not regarded as anything good, nonetheless things are changing and now we are beginning to appreciate the importance of testosterone in men and women while the balance of estrogen and progesterone is highly dependent on a cycle. And as we come to the end of this discussion, we want to help you take the summery of the whole journey we took form the beginning as we started the discussion. And now if you or any of your loved one is struggling with this are you are wondering on what to do. You can therefore schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury for further direction.

http://regenerativepotential.com/integrativeaddictionconference/

 

 

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