Getting back to the basics of drug addiction

June 12, 2015

Getting back to the basics of drug addiction: When it has become necessary to get to the basics

Getting back to the basics of drug addiction can be done effectively through group therapies.

Healing the wounds created by effects of substance abuse would necessitate that we take stock of our lifestyle by getting back to the basics of drug addiction. The information about drug addiction is the beginning of all possible solutions that we can find. When we are aware of the causes, signs and symptoms, preventive measures, treatment and where to get the right professionals for the job, then we will be taking the first lane in the fight against drug addiction effectively says doctor Dalal Akoury. This problem of addiction is a global problem, however some nations are hard hit by the scourge of addiction. US can attest to the magnitude of drug addiction. From teenagers in the city up bringing to the elderly living in rural America, there is no one in this country invulnerable to the dangers of drug addiction. Meaning that, the effects of drug addiction cuts across board and does not discriminate. Experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center have reported that drug addiction impacts negatively on the lives of men and women of all races, religions and socioeconomic groups. Therefore understanding drug addiction is an important part of helping a loved one who is suffering from the disease. In this article, we are going to be sharing with you certain valuable information tailored to help those who are living in silence with a drug addiction, or those who want to reach out and help other people who are suffering from addiction as follows.

Getting back to the basics of drug addiction: Most Common Types of Drug Addiction

Like it is always said luck of knowledge is the reason for many sufferings, we want to eliminate that by giving you the best information about addiction for possible execution should anything happens. According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Akoury, currently there are quite a number of different types of drug addiction “making the rounds” at treatment centers (and more painfully in the emergency rooms) across the globe. Some of these conditions may include:

Cocaine addiction
Heroin addiction
Prescription drug addiction, including addictions to Vicodin and Oxycontin
Crystal meth addiction
Percocet addiction
Marijuana addiction

It is very important that we are aware of these addictive drugs and conditions to be able to correct them before them because more harm to the body. It is because of this pressing need that made doctor Dalal Akoury to form this facility as a way of giving her contribution in the fight against drug addiction. If you are struggling with any kind of addiction, you must break the silence and schedule for an appointment with her today for the commencement of your recovery process.

Getting back to the basics of drug addiction: Signs and Symptoms of Drug Addiction

With the numerous kinds of drugs in the market, so are the signs and symptoms. According to most experts the following list represents some of the most common symptoms of drug addiction. Physical signs and symptoms of drug addiction may include, chills, sweats, flu like symptoms and excess amounts of physical energy among many others while the psychological symptoms of drug addiction may include anxiety, euphoria, delusions of grandeur and nervousness. In addition to these physical and psychological symptoms, there are also a number of societal behaviors that tend to be exhibited by those suffering from addiction including:

Engaging in reckless behavior, such as driving while intoxicated and unprotected sex with multiple partners
Stealing money and engaging in other criminal activity to support a drug habit
Stealing or borrowing money from friends and family to support one’s drug addiction
Disappearing for long stretches of time without explanation
Sudden poor performance at work or school

If you or someone you love is exhibiting one or more of these behaviors due to drug use, it is time to contact a professional interventionist or a drug rehab facility immediately. You can contact us at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center and we will professionally take your through the right recovery process that will leave you sober and healthy to face life once again positively.

Getting back to the basics of drug addiction: Getting Help for Someone Else

The biggest problem about drug addiction is that of denial. In most cases the individuals who are suffering from the condition will rarely be willing to seek for help or treatment on their own. In other words, most men and women are unable or unwilling to admit that they have a problem that needs to be fixed. Many will also feel ashamed about their addiction and therefore suffer in silence as they fall deeper and deeper into the negative spiral of drug dependence. With this kind of attitude, the burden of support and help remains with the close family members and friends to assist then in seeking for treatment. This may not be very easy but if it is the only option, then it must be done. Therefore once the signs and symptoms of drug addiction have been identified, it is important that the family or friends take the next step of talking to their loved one openly and honestly, about their condition.

Doctor Akoury says that if, after talking, their addiction continues, it is recommended that you hold an intervention. Remember that an intervention is a meeting in which family and friends confront their loved one about their condition, in a loving manner, showing them how it has impacted the lives of those around them. The object of an intervention is to get the individual to come to the realization and acknowledgement that they have a problem with drugs, and also to get that person into accepting to have the problem to be fixed either by being admitted at a drug rehab or getting an outpatient treatment immediately. This will not be easy but the effort will be worth it. Finally if you need to know more on how you can be of help to your addicted loved one, then you may want to consider scheduling for an appointment with doctor Akoury today for a more professional input.

Getting back to the basics of drug addiction: When it has become necessary to get to the basics

Drug abuse and treatment for skin picking disorders

June 11, 2015

Drug abuse and treatment for skin picking disorders: How Drug Abuse Affects the Skin

The rough Road of Quitting Heroin Addiction

Drug abuse and treatment for skin picking disorders. the two conditions can destroy ones life if not addressed from the beginning

With the increasing demand for beauty globally a lot is being done to improve the quality of our skin to keep looking as youthful as possible. The worry is, even as positive efforts are being done, a lot more bad things are also being done to destroy the youthfulness and beauty of your skin. Upon discovering that there is great need to tame the problem of substance abuse which has been seen to be the primary obstacle in sustaining the beauty of your skin, doctor Akoury made a decision to create 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. 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. In this facility a lot is being done to restore the lost dignities, self-confidence of many people who are struggling with drug addiction. In our previous article, we noticed that skin picking disorders are some of the consequences that come with drug addiction and especially heroin addiction. Therefore in this article, we want to look at drug addiction and treatment for skin picking disorders as a way of finding lasting solutions.

Drug abuse and treatment for skin picking disorders: The skin picking disorder

The problem of skin picking disorders are becoming very common in today’s generation due to the continuous abuse of heroin. When one is suffering from this disorder, the beauty of such a person is seriously affected owing to the effects of the heroin addiction. To deal with this condition, doctor Akoury recommends that treatment must be done to the victim for both condition (heroin addiction and the infections on the skin as a result of the same). She further says that even though treatment of addiction is very difficult and full of obstacle, the good news is that with determination, this can be done conclusively. It is therefore advisable that if you are struggling with any form of addiction you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury who will professionally carry out an extensive assessment on you to evaluate your psychological soundness before taking any treatment action on you. And like I had indicated before it must be noted that this substance is very addictive and a comprehensive psychiatric assessment will always be very vital. Doctor Akoury says that under normal circumstances an initial, personalized assessment should cover the following areas:

Identification of what triggers the behavior?
Getting to know the benefits individual is getting from the behavior
Finding out if the individual have co-occurring mental health problems, like anxiety or depression
Does the individual have an alcohol or drug problem?
Does the person have a family history of mental illness?
Has the person tried any medications or therapies in the past?

Even though a lot more still needs to be done when it comes to the treatment for this condition due to the fact that at the moment the, U.S. Food and Drug Administration have not yet approved any medications specifically for the treatment of BFRBs, there are clear evidence that several drugs have been used in the past successfully to control the impulse to pick or scratch the skin and the following are some of the medications which can be essentially helpful:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine (Prozac) and escitalopram (Lexapro), have been approved for the treatment of depression and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder
Tricyclic antidepressants, such as amitriptyline (Elavil) and imipramine (Elavil)
Opioid antagonists, such as naltrexone (ReVia), are used to reduce the pleasurable effects of alcohol and certain narcotics
Neuroleptic medications, such as olanzapine (Zyprexa) and risperidone (Risperdal), are used to treat repetitive, compulsive behaviors

Doctor Akoury reiterates that along with medication, behavioral modification therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can help reduce the urge to self-mutilate. These therapies have also proven to be valuable in the treatment of drug addiction.

Drug abuse and treatment for skin picking disorders: Hope for Compulsive Behaviors

Skin picking and hair pulling, like drug or alcohol abuses are not conditions to be taken lightly because the consequences of not taking immediate action can be very destructive. Because we are dealing a very delicate organ, when strong substances like heroin are a bused, the effect on the skin can be very wanting. I encourage you to take the beauty restoration of your skin seriously by scheduling for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for an elaborate treatment procedure. Dr. Akoury will be waiting for your call to help you regain the life of your skin. Remember that the main objective of doctor Akoury and her team of experts 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. It is very interesting to note that Dr. Akoury’s practice focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes to ensure that your health is completely restored back to normalcy so that you can live life to the fullest.

Finally dear reader when fighting addiction, it is never a one man’s job, all of us needs to pool together to defeat this problem. On her part besides offering lasting solutions to patients, doctor Akoury is also reaching out for the professionals in this discipline of addiction through offering her exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. In fact this year AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center is organizing the first ever Integrative Addiction Conference 2015. The conference will be held in August 23-25 at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and the mission of this conference is to provide prevention education, awareness, options and support to patients and physicians dealing with addiction.

It is also tailored to empower physicians to be involved in determining their personal “best answer for addiction” and promoting physician/patient awareness of a natural, yet profoundly effective, addiction treatment options that result in you “thriving while surviving” during treatment and recovery. Nonetheless the Integrative Addiction Conference 2015 will cover topics such as addiction as a holistic body ecosystem derangement, the interaction between stress, survivorship, pain and addiction, the role of hormonal imbalance in the disease of addiction, the genetic and epigenetic influences on the disease of addiction, psycho neuroendocrine immune restoration essential to reverse addiction as well as new and future therapies in the horizon for addiction treatment including stem therapy for psycho neuroendocrine immune restoration. This is a must attend conference for all professionals and you can get more information by login to www.integrativeaddiction2015.com or email sharon@integrativeaddiction2015.com.

Drug abuse and treatment for skin picking disorders: How Drug Abuse Affects the Skin

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health

June 10, 2015

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health: Why is it is necessary to have the problem fixed?

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health can go in cycle time and a gain if decisive action is not taken in good time

The human body has very vital organs that need a lot of care for them to function well and for the wellbeing of human health. This vital roles played by these organs is under constant threat of infection from various substance of abuses including the reckless use of marijuana. When an individual is under the influence of any drug he ceases to operate normally and this can affect not just his physical health but also psychological health. This discussion on this article is going to focus on the effects of marijuana addiction on human health and doctor Dalal Akoury MD and founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center is going to professionally help us in high lighting some facts about this drug and how it can be a threat to your health. With a professional like doctor Akoury on board, you do not want to be left out, therefore as we progress into the discussion, if you are struggling with this kind of addiction, then you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury today for more professional guidance and treatment.

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health and to the Lungs

Studies have established that someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have a collection of similar respiratory problems that tobacco smokers normally have. If this habit is embraced for a long time, then such individuals may have daily cough and phlegm which are symptoms of chronic bronchitis and more frequent chest colds. It is important to note that the continued smoking of marijuana can lead to abnormal functioning of lung tissue injured or destroyed by marijuana smoke. Regardless of the THC content, the amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide absorbed are three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers. This may be due to the marijuana users inhaling more deeply and holding the smoke in the lungs.

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health and particularly on heart rate and blood pressure

Over the years experts have been studying on the magnitude of double use of drugs like using marijuana alongside other drugs like cocaine. The findings of these studies indicated that smoking marijuana alongside shooting up cocaine can potentially cause severe increases in heart rate and blood pressure. In one study, experienced marijuana and cocaine users were given marijuana alone, cocaine alone, and then a combination of the two. When each of the drugs was administered alone, the result was that it produced cardiovascular effects nonetheless when the two substances were combined; the effects were greater and lasted longer. The heart rate of the individuals who were under investigation in the study increased by 29 beats per minute with marijuana alone and 32 beats per minute with cocaine alone. When the drugs were given together, the heart rate increased by 49 beats per minute, and the increased rate persisted for a longer time. The drugs were given with the subjects sitting quietly. In normal circumstances, an individual may smoke marijuana and inject cocaine and then do something physically stressful that may significantly increase risks of overload on the cardiovascular system.

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health: Heavy Marijuana Use on Learning and Social Behavior

A study of college students has shown that critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning are impaired among people who use marijuana heavily, even after discontinuing its use for at least 24 hours. In an effort to finding facts about these researchers compared 65 “heavy users,” who had smoked marijuana a median of 29 for the past 30 days, and 64 “light users,” who had smoked a median of 1 for the past 30 days. After monitoring them very closely for about 19- to 24-hour period of abstinence from marijuana and other illicit drugs and alcohol, the undergraduates were given several standard tests measuring aspects of attention, memory, and learning. Compared to the light users, heavy marijuana users made more errors and had more difficulty sustaining attention, shifting attention to meet the demands of changes in the environment, and in registering, processing, and using information. The findings suggest that the greater impairment among heavy users is likely due to an alteration of brain activity produced by marijuana.

Longitudinal research on marijuana use among young people below college age indicates those who used have lower achievement than the non-users, more acceptance of deviant behavior, more delinquent behavior and aggression, greater rebelliousness, poorer relationships with parents, and more associations with delinquent and drug-using friends. From the research it was also very evident that there was more anger and more regressive behavior (thumb sucking, temper tantrums) in toddlers whose parents use marijuana than among the toddlers of non-using parents.

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health: Effects of Marijuana on Pregnancy

The health of mothers often becomes very delicate particularly during pregnancies and this could become even more complicated with substance abuse. It therefore means that any drug of abuse can affect a mother’s health during pregnancy no matter the quantities used. Therefore, this is a time when mothers should take extra special care of themselves. It is true that drug abuse may interfere with proper nutrition and rest, which can affect good functioning of the immune system. Doctor Akoury states that from the available based on the research findings it has been established that some babies born to mothers who used marijuana during pregnancy were underweight that is to say, they were much smaller than those born to sober mothers who did not use the drug. The understanding of that is that, smaller babies are more likely to develop health problems.

As we get to the end of this article, it is important to understand that nursing mothers who uses marijuana will definitely pass some of the THC to the baby through the breast milk. Experts have established that the use of marijuana by mothers during their first month of breast-feeding can impair the infant’s motor development (control of muscle movement) which is not very good for the baby. Finally all these threats of life can be avoided or treated professionally if only you could schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury who is an expert in her own right in all matters relating to substance abuse and addiction.

Effects of Marijuana addiction on human health: Why is it is necessary to have the problem fixed?

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.

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