Solutions Addiction

Solving the problem of addiction means that steps are taken to reduce the consequences of particular behaviors, and that at the same time; actions are taken to enhance life and bring about permanent change where addiction really is no longer an issue. Within this framework of intervention, there are many avenues of change, as well as different endpoints of the change process. For some, abstinence from particular behaviors like injecting heroin or smoking crack cocaine are necessary and appropriate endpoints, but for others, social drinking, or developing healthy relationships with sex and food may be just as appropriate.

Addiction Treatment Medication

Drug addiction treatment can include medications, behavioral therapies or a combination thereof. Treatment medications, such as methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, may help individuals addicted to opioids. Doctors prescribe nicotine preparations like patches, gum, lozenges and nasal spray and the medications varenicline and bupropion for individuals addicted to tobacco. Disulfiram, acamprosate, naltrexone and topiramate treat alcohol dependence, which commonly occurs with other drug addictions. In fact, most people with severe addiction are user many kinds of drugs and require treatment for all substances abused. Psychoactive medications, such as antidepressants, anti-anxiety agents, mood stabilizers and antipsychotic medications, may help patients have mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders including post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and a drug addiction problem.

Personalized Medicine

Personalized medicine is a medical model emphasizing the systematic use of information about an individual patient to select or optimize that patient's preventative and therapeutic care. Personalized medicine is the products and services that leverage the science of genomics and proteomics and capitalize on the trends toward wellness and consumerism to enable tailored approaches to prevention and care.

Over the past century, medical care has centered on standards of care based on epidemiological studies of large cohorts. Personalized medicine seeks to provide an objective basis for consideration of such individual differences. Traditionally, personalized medicine has been limited to the consideration of a patient's family history, social circumstances, environment, and behaviors in tailoring individual care.

Personalized medicine uses new methods of molecular analysis to manage a patient’s disease or predisposition toward a disease. It aims to achieve optimal medical outcomes by helping physicians and patients choose the disease management approaches likely to work best in the context of a patient’s genetic and environmental profile. Such approaches may include genetic screening programs that more precisely diagnose diseases and their sub-types, or help physicians select the type and dose of medication best suited to a certain group of patients.

Lsd

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is a semi-synthetic hallucinogen with psychedelic properties, originally derived from the ergot fungus in 1938. Commonly known as “acid,” LSD causes users to experience altered perceptions, sensory distortions, and other hallucinations. Gaining notoriety during the 1960s drug pandemic, LSD is considered non-toxic and not physically addictive, though psychological addictions do occur. Pure LSD does not take on color or scent, and tends to have a bitter taste. While LSD is a solid in its purest form, it can be absorbed into paper, known as “sheets of acid”—often sporting small, colorful designs with cartoon characters or drawings. LSD can also be absorbed into sugar cubes, or fashioned into gelatin.

Historically, LSD has been used experimentally in a wide variety of settings. Under the brand-name Delysid, LSD was once used in the field of psychiatry in the late 1940s as a therapeutic tool. During the 1950s, LSD was used by the CIA in a research experiment to unwitting agents, military members, government employees, and members of the public. During the 1960s, recreational use of LSD skyrocketed, leading to the criminalization of LSD. Today, LSD is often used at underground raves, by college students at parties, as a “trip drug,” that can create hallucinatory and multi-sensory or cognitive distortions. As a drug, LSD is usually taken orally, often by licking, sucking or eating blotter paper, jellos, or sugar cubes. Liquid LSD can be taken through syringes, via injections into the veins or in between muscles. LSD can also be encapsulated into gel-caps, or taken in pill form when combined with binders. Users tend to feel effects with relatively small doses, measured in micrograms—measurements exponentially smaller than most those used for most drugs.

Is LSD Legal? LSD remains illegal in the United States, classified as a “Schedule I” drug. Currently, it is illegal to be in possession of LSD, as well as to manufacture, distribute, transport or sell the substance.