Treatment for drug dependence

Drug abuse treatment is a major method for reducing the health and social p roblems associated with dependence on psychoactive drugs. Drug dependence i s very well established in the United States, where cyclical rises and fall s in the use of different drugs often occur. Heroin and cocaine use are spr eading rapidly throughout the world as a whole, particularly in developing countries. The need for effective treatments for drug dependence is likely to increase in the foreseeable future. Currently three major forms of long- term drug abuse treatment exist: methadone maintenance, in which an agonist medication is used to normalize physiological functioning; residential the rapeutic communities, which are based on '"resocializing" the drug user; an d outpatient drug-free programs, which utilize a wide variety of counseling and psychotherapy approaches. Multiple large treatment outcome studies hav e been conducted among persons receiving treatment for drug dependence and have shown consistent effects in reducing the use of psychoactive drugs, th ough complete elimination of drug use is an infrequent outcome. Length of t ime in drug treatment is the best single predictor of positive post-treatme nt outcomes. HIV infection has become an extremely important adverse conseq uence associated with the injection of psychoactive drugs. Multiple studies have shown that drug abuse treatment is an effective method for preventing HIV infection among injecting drug users.