Substance Abuse Treatment

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I am truly disturbed by the above image, the hematoma produced by the needle had a great impact on me at the time I saw his arm. These severe damages observed at first shot made me stop and analyze what is going on with him. At first seen, I noticed the person’s arm being severely injured by multiple injections, and his overall unhealthy state... I observed the color of his skin changing beneath his eyes as the individual looked up, and the lost look in his eyes was scary. I also observed the mental state when I looked at the image. He is not only high, but also at risk to face a drug overdose or coma.

The person also shows signs of physical injuries such as head cut, bruise on the left side of his temple, and laceration of the right side of his upper lip. These physical and psychological injuries are caused by drug addiction and the addict person and no one else. This is very disturbing to others such as myself who has never came across anyone addicted to hard substances.

What could anyone do to save this men’s life?

Could this individual be even saved from killing himself? Is there anyone or any treatment that could stop such disaster? I notice from the image that an intravenous syringe caused thrombosis of the arm’s vein, but I don’t know what type of drug the person had injected. I can only assume that he either injected cocaine, heroin, or amphetamine. However, I strongly believe that he has been using heroin since it steadily increased worldwide. Another reason is because heroin is a very addictive opioid because it works on the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward pathway (Inaba & Cohen, 2000).  

It is obvious that the individual would first benefit from detoxification as the first step taken during the intervention process.

Detoxification means to get the drug out of the body if the person is still using the substance. How would detoxification aid in this process? First, it normalizes the brain’s neurochemical balance, and will aid to normalize the person’s thinking ability so he can participate fully in his own recovery (Inaba & Cohen, 2000).

Of course, this occurs through the abstinence of the used drug. It takes two weeks to excrete drugs and four weeks to ten months until the body chemistry returns back to a normal stage (Inaba & Cohen, 2000). Detox helps diminishing the withdrawal symptoms. However, the person must be assessed before the procedure because the results solely depend on the severity of addiction such as “the level of intoxication, the potential for severe withdrawal symptoms, the presents of other medical or psychological problems, the patient response to treatment, the potential for relapse, and the environment for recovery need to be determined” (p.395).

 Medication Available for detoxification are:

Clonodine diminishes the withdrawal symptom of opioids, alcohol, and nicotine.

Methadone used for long acting opioid use known as methadone maintenance. Used in conjunction with other three drugs: Buprenorpine, levomethadyl acetate (LAAM), and naltrexone.

Antipsychotic medication such as haloperidol, desipramine, imipramine, and SSRI antidepressants are used during the detox process of cocaine, and methamphetamine.

Bromocriptine, amantadine, and L-Dopa have been used to treat craving for cocaine and stimulant drug depressant.

Inaba & Cohen (2000). Uppers, Downers, and All Arounders. Fifth Edition. Published by CNS Production, Inc.