As promised in earlier article, I’ll continue the discussion about family factors that effecting patient addiction cause. Based on the fact that these addiction became same sort of runaway because of disappointment and many other things.
Environment took important role and these environment factors are effecting family as well. Having good family with good environment does help reducing addiction factors. But to know more about family factors that cause addiction lets find out below:
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In 1964 Doctors Dole and Nyswander gave twenty two hospitalized heroin addicts increasing doses of methadone until they reached a “stabilized state,” meaning that they had neither withdrawal symptoms nor a craving for further increases in the dosage: With repeated administration of a fixed dose, methadone loses its sedative and analgesic powers. The subject becomes tolerant.
The patients were then released, but they returned each day for an oral dose of methadone. The following year a research report by Dole and Nyswander (1965) revealed extraordinary results from this approach, which they ascribed to methadone’s ability to provide a “pharmacological block” against heroin. Furthermore, it was theorized, heroin abuse in certain addicts results in a metabolic disorder that requires the continued ingestion of narcotics if the person is to remain homeostatic. With such disorders methadone acts like any prescribed medicine, normalizing the patient’s functioning.
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Like those in the past, contemporary treatment programs typically begin with detoxification a term left over from an obsolete theory that addicts suffer from an accumulation of toxins with or without the assistance of drugs. Antagonists are sometimes used as an aid in heroin detoxification. Because of its potency, withdrawal from licit maintenance doses of methadone is generally accomplished by decreasing dosages.
The antihypertension drug clonidine has been used to relieve many of the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, particularly those involving autonomic nervous system hyperactivity. Some physicians have recommended clonidine for the detoxification of methadone patients who are being maintained on relatively low dosages. Whereas methadone can be found in the patient’s system more than a week after the last dose, clonidine has a shorter life. Thus, a clonidine patient can be placed on naltrexone immediately on detoxification, whereas a methadone patient would experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms under similar treatment.
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As part of the search for a “magic bullet,” scientists developed a number of heroin antagonists, substances that block or counteract the effects of opiates. These substances bind with opiate receptor sites, thereby preventing stimulation, or they displace an opiate that is already at the site. Antagonists, such as naloxone (Narcan), have significant side effects.
A dose as small as 0.25 mg will block the effects of heroin for ten hours, but it is effective only when administered intravenously. It does not reduce the “drug hunger” of heroin addicts. Naloxone is used for testing for opiate dependence (Narcon test) before admission to a methadone program.
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