Short explanation of the prevalent treatment methods

DETOX Treatment focuses on augmenting the withdrawal process by suppressing the urge temporarily and purifying the body from drugs by using various chemicals. Patient is kept in an unnatural environment (in a special medical facility). Link: http://www.hbo.com/addiction/treatment/39_what_is_detox.html

MEDICATION TREATMENT Patient is treated with medicines (methadone, naltrexone, buprenorphine and alike) which either try to balance the chemicals in the brain or appease the urge by giving a substitute Link: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/treatmeth.html

COUNSELING PROGRAMS Patient is led through cognitive therapy, multidimensional family therapy, motivational interviewing, motivational incentives and other similar programs Link: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/treatmeth.html

HYPNO-THERAPY Focus is on reinforcing behavioral changes and helping the patient cope with stresses through self induced hypnosis or hypnosis induced by a certified hypnotherapist. Link: http://www.beatingaddictions.co.uk/HypnosisForAnAddiction.html

12-STEP PROGRAMS In addition to counseling support and support therapy, this treatment is also focused on relying on God and asking for His help in the process. Also it focuses on enabling the patient independently work on reducing one’s defects in personality and making amends for the wrongdoings. The person is also motivated to help others. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program

SPIRITUAL HEALING PROGRAMS Focus is on specific spiritual measures including specific energy chants and applying spiritual treatment materials onto oneself Link: http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/addiction

Comparable effectiveness of addiction treatment methods

Here is a comparable overview of the various treatment methods nowadays with their mode of operation and effectiveness explained. What is clear from this table is that there are numerous treatment methods but unless they focus on the cause the treatment will not be very effective. Unfortunately all the prevalent methods nowadays do not target the cause. There is only one method, albeit not a prevalent one, which targets the cause.

Technique	Mode of operation	Effectiveness	Explanation of effectiveness
Detox	Physical	Extremely low	Since it is done in an unnatural environment and not focusing on preventing the future use the patient usually turns back to drugs immediately after leaving the facility. This treatment does not target the cause of addiction.
Medication treatment	Physical	Very low	Compared to detox the treatment is more effective because it focuses on prolonged treatment. However since the treatment is gross, that is, focusing on the physical level, and is not treating the cause of addiction the effectiveness is very low. Also giving substitute is a false cure as the patient is still an addict just using a less harmful drug.
Counseling programs	Psychological (Conscious mind)	Low	The effectiveness of this method is slightly higher than the previous two as it also targets the psychological aspect of the illness and also motivates the person psychologically to fight addiction. In addition the treatment is helpful in making the patient more socially adaptable and by involving his loved ones in the process. Their support proves helpful. However, since it still does not target the cause of addiction the effectiveness is low.
Hypno therapy	Psychological (Subconscious mind)	Medium	Since the treatment targets the impressions in the subconscious mind it can be very helpful in treating the patient. However even this method does not target the cause of the problem completely as it does not include the spiritual aspect
12-step program	Psychological (Conscious mind), Spiritual	Medium	Since the treatment is focused on curing the mind and also focuses on the spiritual support the effectiveness is higher than other methods mentioned above. In addition, the act of helping others reduces focus on self which helps to overcome the addiction faster. However even this method does not focus on the actual cause of the treatment so it is still not effective in most cases.
Spiritual healing	Spiritual	Complete	Since the method targets the actual cause of addiction with appropriate treatment for the same it can guarantee permanent cure without relapse. The timing needed for the cure depends on one’s efforts and also one’s destiny, but if it is applied properly it is effective in 100% of cases.

What is the effectiveness of various treatment methods used nowadays? Data from scientific research:

According to the National institute on drug abuse (NIDA) about 30% of people relapse within 6 months of therapy. Many other researchers and authorities in the field mention figures of 40%-60% (Simpson, Joe & Lehman; Bell; Peters, etc).

Dr. George Koob, a professor with the Scripps Research Institute goes even further to show that approximately 80% of the addicts and alcoholics who experience detox return to drug or alcohol use within a year!

No one seems to research the percentage of relapses after 1 year but if we follow this trend, that percentage of relapse increases over time, it would not be surprising to find that 90% of drug addicts will relapse at some point in their life.

These are staggering figures. Imagine how our life would be if everything we tried to do in life had such a success ratio. Imagine if this was the success ratio of a plane flight. How many people would dare to fly? Actually this reminds me that in the early days of flying. Up until the 1950’s, the success ratios of flights were pretty low, maybe as low as the addiction treatment ratios nowadays, and the reason was simple: the planes were not designed properly.

The same stands true here. If something repeatedly fails it is obviously missing some key element and the methodology has to be changed. And this unfortunately applies to every single addiction treatment used in the moden world today.

A story of a successful treatment center

Before going into the reasons for addiction it is important to see the reality of the current situation and the current effectiveness of drug treatment in the world. The reality is that most drug treatments fail and they fail in great measure.

I once volunteered at a drug treatment center in downtown DC. Not a very nice area of town but in that area there was a rehab center with some very nice people. They were ex addicts themselves and they created one of the best rehab centers in town, renowned for their effectiveness. The patients were closed in for 6 weeks without contact with the outside world, without contact with the drugs, with daily consultations, meetings, games, support and daily prayers as well. People had to sacrifice a lot to become patients at this facility and the rules were tough. You try to smuggle even a sip of any sort of alcohol or a smidgen of any sort of drug and it was over, you would be permanently removed from the center. And with no chance of ever coming back. This was their general rule of tough love. Even if you completed the treatment and then had a relapse the door was closed for you forever. It was one chance so you better give it all you got. And it worked, to some extent. And due to this there was a backlog of people waiting to join, because they were renowned for their effectiveness.

But even this popular center with unique methods and what was considered high effectiveness did not really have a high effectiveness. They were far from curing every single soul and many people relapsed, some even on the day of leaving the facility. So, it made me wonder and I did some research. Lo and behold, the figures are very disappointing.