DENYING AMERICA’S HEROES ACCESS TO “GOLD STANDARD” ADDICTION TREATMENT:
An AP report (summarized in Join Together, 23 Jan 09) describes the steadily increasing number of military becoming addicted to opiate painkillers. And yet, the Dept of Defense health insurance plan for active and former military and their dependents, TRICARE, denies coverage for maintenance treatment. Meanwhile, US taxpayer funds, through PEPFAR, are being used to expand methadone treatment in Viet Nam. Go figure...
posted by RGNewman, MD @ 1:54 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
SAMHSA/CSAT and VA still ignore the evidence: heroin and pain pill addicts do best with structured opioid maintenance treatment, not detoxification or monthly Suboxone prescriptions. Many patients withdraw, then relapse; overdoses are frequent, accidental, suicidal or parasuicidal. Many 'rehab' survivors function poorly and become hopeless.
There is hardly another treatment in psychiatry that decreases a pathological behavior and thought patterns more successfully than methadone maintenance decreases abuse-addiction behaviors, particularly if combined with cognitive therapy groups and other psychiatric treatment.
Heinz Aeschbach, MD,
Addiction and Psychotherapy Services, www.austinmethadone.com
www.humane-civilization.org ->addiction
Post a Comment
<< Home