Substance use orders are difficult to treat effectively. Many traditional treatment methods have proven to be relatively successful, but these forms of treatment aren’t right for every patient. While traditional approaches generally address the physical symptoms of the addiction, a multidisciplinary addiction treatment model helps the patients achieve a complete recovery.
A multidisciplinary approach to treatment aims to address the addiction, co-occurring mental health issues, legal concerns and other factors of the patient’s life that have been affected by substance abuse.
Addiction Goes Beyond Mental and Physical Health
Addiction leads to many negative consequences for people struggling with substance abuse.
In addition to taking a toll on the body, addiction carries significant effects that can compromise other areas of life, such as:
- Emotional Stability
- Mental Health
- Education
- Career Opportunities
- Personal Relationships
- Legal Standing
- Behavioral Issues
It?s vital to address all the negative effects of addiction for the patient to achieve a more well-rounded recovery. If a person stops using drugs in treatment but has no idea how to adjust to sober living, their chance for relapse greatly increases.
Mental Health Treatment
Addiction is isolating. Many people struggling with addiction feel alienated from friends and family due to the negative social stigmas surrounding substance abuse. Even worse, many addictive drugs take a toll on the mind, rewiring neural pathways and essentially priming the brain for addictive behavior. Addiction can, in turn, create new mental health issues. Without treating these problems, overcoming the addiction becomes that much more difficult.
Multidisciplinary approaches are common in mental health treatment services. Patients don?t follow one single treatment system. Instead, care providers use a multifaceted approach that can include medications, counseling in a variety of settings, and holistic therapies.
The same strategies are just as effective when leveraged to treat addiction: Patients tend to have an easier time in recovery and display better results when every aspect of their addiction is treated.
Dual Diagnosis
When a person struggles with substance abuse while simultaneously suffering from a mental health disorder, this condition is referred to as dual diagnosis case or co-occurring disorder.
Treating one issue before the other is ineffective because dual diagnosis patients experience a destructive cycle of symptoms where their addictions and mental health problems feed into each other. The most effective way to break this dangerous relationship is by treating both the addiction and the mental health issue simultaneously.
Proven Success in Studied Cases
A study led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health examined the effectiveness of multidisciplinary addiction treatment in unique cases. The subject of the study was a pregnant woman suffering from opioid addiction while struggling with post-traumatic stress from early childhood abuse and a recent abusive relationship.
With a combination of perinatal addiction counseling, psychological counseling, medication for PTSD and traditional prenatal care, the subject successfully delivered a healthy baby who required only a moderate course of treatment for neonatal abstinence syndrome. This case is a prime example of how a multidisciplinary approach to addiction treatment is not only more likely to succeed but is sometimes necessary.
Learn More About Multidisciplinary Addiction Treatment
At The Treatment Center, we understand the delicate nature of dual diagnosis care. We are proud to take a multidisciplinary approach to addiction treatment and are confident that this is for the benefit of all of our patients, not just for dual diagnosis cases.
We help our patients recover physically and emotionally, while also providing the tools they need to repair a life destroyed my addiction. We also instruct patients on education opportunities and career advancement after addiction. Find out more about our approach to treatment by meeting our multidisciplinary team of addiction experts.
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