Skip to main content

Principles of Effective Drug Treatment

Effective Drug Treatment is very essential if one wants to cure or avoid relapse of drug addiction. There are various steps to avoid drug addiction.

Some of principles are mentioned below:


  • One must keep in mind that no single treatment is enough for all individuals. Matching treatment settings, getting services to each individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to his/her ultimate success in returning to productive knowledge in family, workplace and safety.
  • The treatment which a person needs should be readily available. This is because persons who are addicted to drugs may not be sure about entering treatment. With these they must be ready to take advantage of opportunities when ready for treatment. Potential treatment applications may be lost when treatment is not available immediately.
  • Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of individuals not only his/her drug use. To make it effective, drug treatment must address the drug addicts use and its associated medical, psychological, social, vocational and legal problems.
  • Individuals’ service plan and treatment must be assessed continually & modified when necessary to ensure that the plan meets the persons changing requirement. A person may require various combinations of services & treatments during course of recovery. Along With counseling sometimes an individual may require medications & other services like family therapy, parenting instructions and legal services.
  • To remain in treatment for a required time period is critical for treatment effectiveness. The duration would depend on individual’s problems & needs. Research states that the significant result for improvement would reach at about 3 months in treatment process. But many times people would leave the treatment programs prematurely, which needs to be solved by including strategies to engage and keep patients in treatment.
  • Various counseling & behavioral therapies need to be provided which would help in effective treatment process. In this type of therapy patients would need motivation, have them build skills to resist drug use, replace drug using activities with constructive non-drug activities and improve their problem solving skills.
  • Medications are important in process of many patients especially when combined with counseling and other therapies. Various drugs like methadone and levo-alpha-acetylmethadol are effective in helping those who are addicted to heroin & other opiates which stabilize the lives & reduce the illicit drug usage. Naltrexone is an effective medication for opiate drug addicts and for some with alcohol dependency. For person addicted to nicotine, a nicotine replacement product or oral medication is provided which is an effective component of treatment.
  • Addicted Individuals who have both mental & physical disorders should be treated in an integrated way. Because addictive disorders and mental disorders often occur in same individuals people with one condition should be treated for other as well.
  • Medical Detoxification is first step in addiction treatment and does very little to change long-term drug use. Medical detoxification manages the acute physical symptoms associated with withdrawal of drug use. This detoxification treatment can alone help addicts achieve long term absenteeism from drugs.
  • To be effective the treatment doesn’t need to be voluntary. Strong motivation can help in the treatment process. Sanctions in family employment settings can increase both the treatment entry and retention rates to success of drug treatment.

Comments