In 1993, the Washington, D.C., Superior Court ran a drug-intervention experiment on drug-involved defendants. Drug felons were assigned to one of three groups: a standard docket, a treatment docket with a comprehensive drug-intervention program, and a sanction docket with drug testing and consequences for failure. The results indicated that both experimental dockets were successful. Re-arrests in the year after original sentencing were down. Also, a reduction in drug-related social problems for participants was noted.
Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous
You do not need to be addicted to alcohol or drugs to go to AA or NA meetings, you only have to have a desire to stop using. In the D.C. Superior Court experiment, drug felons who attended NA or AA meetings had a significant reduction in heroin and/or cocaine use in the year following their initial sentencing.
Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous are 12-step programs free to anyone who wants to quit abusing drugs and alcohol. The methodology to recovery is admitting a problem, admitting powerlessness and admitting that life has become unmanageable. Unlike other interventions, 12-step programs have a spiritual component that some people find difficult to accept.
NA has more than 44,000 meetings in over 127 countries. According to Caron Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers, a survey of more than 1,800 alcohol-dependent people found that those who went to a 12-step program were more likely to stay sober compared with individuals who did not have treatment.
Harm Reduction
The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that methadone is a long-acting synthetic opiate medication that blocks the effects of opiates and decreases opiate craving. Suboxone, Subutex and Antabuse are other agonists used for treating addicts. Methadone intervention treatment, according to Intervention Services Inc., is classified as a "harm reduction" treatment. Only 1 percent of opiate addicts, the organization reports, actually quit using drugs without the aid of this kind of intervention. And because opiate users have a 60 percent chance of becoming IV drug users within three years after getting hooked on drugs, a harm-reduction program may be a person's best shot.
The ONDCP states, "Patients stabilized on opiate agonists can engage more readily in counseling and other behavioral interventions essential to recovery and rehabilitation." Once addicts are stabilized, they can hold jobs, stay out of trouble, reduce exposure to sexual and IV transmitted diseases, and reduce other high-risk behaviors.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is a scientific-based method of intervention counseling. During sessions conducted by an addiction specialist, participants are asked to address four components of their risky behavior: identify episodes of substance use, discuss risk for addiction and consequences, complete an assessment of readiness to address addiction issues, and discuss behavior-change ambivalence.
In 2001, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a study by Christine Barrowclough, Ph.D., that investigated motivational interviewing on dual-diagnosed, drug-addicted patients. After 12 months, those who were involved with motivational interviewing had a significant improvement in general functioning and an increase in drug abstinence.
References
- National Institute of Justice: Evaluation of the D.C. Superior Court Drug Intervention Programs
- Caron Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers: Current Statistics
- The Office of National Drug Control Policy: Does Treatment Work?
- NREPP: National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices
- Motivational Interviewing: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
