Essay on Pharmacotherapy in Drug Addiction - 1382 Words

Addiction is a dependence on a substance where the individual who is affected feels defenseless and unable to stop the obsession to use a substance or prevent a particular behavior. Millions of Americans have addictions to drugs, alcohol, nicotine, and even to behaviors such as obsessive gambling. Pharmacotherapy is a treatment process in which a counselor can use a particular drug to counter act an addictive drug or behavior. Not all counselors agree with this type of treatment. However in order to provide a client with an ethical treatment and unbiased opinions they should be made aware of all scientific evidence of different treatment options. â€Å"Thus, attention to addiction pharmacotherapy is an ethical mandate no matter what prejudices†¦show more content†¦One of the old school medicines used to defer the drinking of alcohol is Disulfiram (Antabuse). Disulfiram is a behavioral intervention in pill form taken on a daily basis that an individual takes to prevent the c learance of alcohol as it is broken down in an individual’s body after they drink. Disulfiram will prevent an individual from drinking because if they drink while taking the drug they will have such a bad reaction they will want to stop the negative behavior of drinking. Because of the alcohol element built up in their blood as it goes through their body the reactions an individual will experience are headache, nausea, vomiting, high, or low blood pressure, and palpitations(Arias Kranzler, n.d). The individual can be quite sick for an extended period of time. In as much disulfiram will stay in an individuals system for One to two weeks. Therefore, if an individual decides they want to stop taking disulfiram the individual still would have to wait a period of time before drinking alcohol or the reactions will still occur. Disulfiram is a behavioral intervention to prevent the drinking from continuing. There is no cure for alcoholism. However, disulfiram can affect the outco me of alcoholism treatment. The side effects for using disulfiram are the first couple of weeks the individual may feel tired and over a period of time an individual may develop a metallic taste in their mouth. However, the taste will go awayShow MoreRelatedAddiction : The Opiate Addiction Crisis921 Words   |  4 Pages The opiate addiction crisis in the US In recent years, chronic pain has been affecting millions of Americans. Whether it is headaches or backaches, chronic pain can be continuous and excruciating for many. Pain management and relief have been mainly treated with prescriptions of opiates. However, people don’t realize that the number of deaths caused by over dosing has increased. This prevalence of prescribing opiates to aid chronic pain has triggered an addiction problem across the US. 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