(2009) conducted two studies of opioid detoxification using Buprenorphine, that occurred at different times, at an outpatient community-based clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. There were 510 adults that were experiencing opioid withdrawal that entered the trial, 364 that received brief (three or five days) and 146 that received extended (30 days) of treatments with Buprenorphine (Katz et al., 2009, p. 64). In both studies the participants were required to attend a once weekly individual and daily group counseling combined with their dosage of Buprenorphine. After the treatment with Buprenorphine, brief or extended, was over weekly individual and/or group counseling meeting could be attended for up to six months. Brief participants received one Two mg tablet of Buprenorphine sublingually each day for three days, which was later changed to five days when buprenorphine was approved by the FDA for the treatment of opioid dependence (Katz et al., 2009, p. 65). Extended patients were gradually inducted on sublingual Suboxone (which contains a four to one ratio of Buprenorphine/Naloxone mixture) over a period of one week, where on day one participants received four mg of Suboxone and dose induction continued for three to seven days until patients achieved a blocking dose or a maximum dose of 16 mg (Katz et al., 2009, p. 65). The extended patients were responsible for taking their medications on the weekends for the first two weeks and then six days a week for the…
Katie is a 35-year-old professional woman, wife and mother of two small children. Katie was first introduced to pain medications after a car accident left her with an injured lower back. The pain medications she took, began a neurobiological response in Katie’s brain that she had no control over. Narcotics take aim at the brains reward system, saturating it with dopamine, giving the user a feeling of pleasure (“Drug Abuse, Addiction, and the Brain,” n.d. p. 2). Katie’s brain began to acclimate to the dopamine surges. Which in turn, the brain generates less dopamine and or decreases the dopamine receptors. This made Katie use more and more drugs, to continually try and attain the dopamine high (“Drug Abuse, Addiction, and the Brain,” n.d. p. 2) Brain imaging studies show that areas of the brain that regulate judgement, behavior control, learning and memory are affected by drug addiction. These changes create the abuser to seek out and take drugs compulsively (“Drug Abuse, Addiction, and the Brain,” n.d. p.1). This began Katie’s addiction to prescription pain medications.…
In 1964, Doctor Marie Nyswander and Vincent Dole started their groundbreaking study of managing opiate addicts with methadone. They unearthed that a customer might exchange the opiate they certainly were harming, usually heroin or morphine in those days, for methadone without severe unwanted effects such as for instance withdrawal signs, mood-swings or excitement. After their achievement…
In the late 1960’s methadone treatment was limited to specific, highly regulated clinics which only helped to increase the stigma of opiod addiction in the eyes of the general public, the medical community, and in many cases the addicted individuals themselves. Recent changes in federal regulations governing methodone clinics and the introduction of office-based treatment with buprenorphrine have helped lessen some of this stigma, but currently widely used diagnostic schemes continue to support a bias against patients with opiod dependence who are effectively treated.…
Gabor Maté, in his article “Embraced by the Needle,” encourages people to understand the addiction to drugs is a result of deep unhappiness that occurs in an individual early in life (273-75). Maté shows in a Portland non-profit harm-reduction facility that he works at, the methadone prescribed does not help the emotional suffering that the addicts endure. Although methadone may halt the effects of withdrawal, there is no “high” created, according to Maté. He also asserts that drugs alone are not the source of addiction and that statistics show that only 8 per cent to 15 per cent of individuals who use substances, such as marijuana, become addicted. This small percentile margin of addiction, Maté argues, supports the position that addiction…
Opiate addiction is a chronic disease that affects millions of people in the Unites States. This deadly epidemic is one that in most cases requires some form of medical treatment. There are many treatment options available to those struggling with addiction. The three most well-known options are rapid detox, suboxone, and methadone maintenance (Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction Facts for Families and Friends). Though each form of treatment has its own advantages and disadvantages, they all have one common goal; drug freedom. Research has shown that those receiving treatment are nearly twice as likely to achieve their goal of drug freedom (Mayo Clinic).…
Maté is a physician who practices in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, often referred to as the drug capital of Canada. He estimates that the addict population in Vancouver is around 3,000 to 5,000 individuals. Maté uses scientific research to identify the biological essence of the “high”, which is a condition under the influence of drugs. He explains how the drugs interact with the brains chemistry to give the user pleasure. In particular, he confirms opiates can develop a “high” excitement, which can induce users to temporarily escape from depressions and to feel better (273).…
Although people have been using and abusing substances for as long as these substances have existed, the study of of addictions with the exception of alcoholism did not really emerge until the 1960's-1970's. Through out the last decade multiple changes to how addiction is viewed have occurred. Due to advances in the medical field and a better understanding of the chemistry of the brain addiction is now viewed as a disease instead of just a lack of morals. Because of the prevalence of wide spread usage of opiods, cocaine, and marijuana in the 60's and 70's more comprehensive research was deemed necessary to not only treat but effectively prevent drug addiction and alcoholism. It was also during this time frame that different classes of substances were created and we see a shift in how drug offenders were handled from the once harsher punishments to required treatment programs.…
In this program the health workers use a long-acting synthetic opiate called Methadone for medication that is given on a daily basis for a maintained period of time, enough to prevent the withdrawal symptoms from the opiate, restrain oneself from the illegal drug, and reduce the desire. Methadone is an opiate transmitter that works by warding off withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings among opiate addicts by stabilizing blood levels and its metabolites. Methadone occupies the brain receptor which blocks the Europhobic and sedating effects of opiates and other substances. At proper doses,…
In this content, there will be a discussion on how someone can learns how to not use drugs and what it was like for them before and after their initial use. There will be an identification of what someone would learn from using to not using. Also included in the discussion there will be a description of how someone’s learning could have occurred through classical conditioning, identifying the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response. An explanation will be given in regards to how their learning could have occurred through operant conditioning, describing the behavior, consequence, and reinforcement. There will be an address of how the learning could have occurred through cognitive-social learning.…
In the United States we have three different branches that make up our government. The branches include: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Even though they are all part of the U.S. government, they all have separate powers and responsibilities. For example, the legislative branch is able to make a law, while the executive branch enforces that law. All of the branches are made up of many different people with their own rolls in the branch.…
Ghodse, H., (2002). Opiate Withdrawal In: Cambridge University Press (ed.), Drugs and Addictive Behavior: A Guide to Treatment. (p.459). New York, New York Cambridge University Press…
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a potent stimulus obtains the ability to evoke an innate response that was originally elicited by a neutral stimulus. In classical conditioning, a UR is an event that occurs naturally in response to some stimuli. On the other hand, a UR is the stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without learning. A CS in classical conditioning is an originally neutral stimulus that, through learning, comes to be associated with some unlearned responses. Finally, a CR is the learned response to the originally neutral but now conditioned stimulus (CITE BOOK). These are the basic components involved in classical conditioning. Classical conditioning theory was first discovered and described…
The civil war brought a social welfare shift in societal opinions and policies as the Reconstruction era and the Freedmen’s Bureau emerged. Upon gaining freedom, former slaves faced troubling times getting work, housing and access to resources even as soldier’s due to their race. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to deal with transient blacks and managing property that was confiscated or abandoned. The black codes practiced among southern states except for Tennessee limited black’s rights; they were denied many of the rights and resources that whites had as citizens of the US and were criminalized for being poor (Stern & Axinn, 2018).…
Since the founding of the United States, the founding fathers feared a government that would become too authoritarian. To contrast this, they allowed the right to protest in the First Amendment. However, protesting usually does not do enough. Often, civil disobedience is necessary to provoke conversation about sometimes immoral societal norms. Many examples include Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Rosa Parks, and others.…