Evaluating Treatment Methods Treating people with substance abuse issues can be challenging and stressful because certain types of abuse problem command different treatment methods. Just because a treatment outcome model does not help reform all substance abuse does not mean that they are not beneficial when treating other addictions. Trial and error is sometime the best way to reach to proper treatment for a person facing addiction in order to solve to problem.
Overview
The article called " Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Plus Contingency Management for Cocaine Use: Finding Treatment and Across 12-month Follow-up” pertains to the substance abuse drug known as cocaine. Study was conducted to evaluate the durability of the combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and contingency management (CM). 286 patients who had abused methadone were chosen to partake in the research, mostly males, and the majority was African American. The participants had to meet the following criteria: age 18-65, qualification for methadone maintenance according to Food and Drug Administration guidelines, and self-reported history of intravenous opiate use (Epstein et al, 2003). They were selected by phone and also in two on-site visits that required a physical examination, urine, and blood testing as well as a battery of assessment instruments. These assessments were comprised of Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and the Diagnostics Interview Schedule (DIS) which as is standard structured interview used as a psychological assessment or psychiatric evaluation. The main goal in this research was to eliminate the use of substance use. It was composed of three stages: baseline treatment for 5 weeks, intervention for 12 weeks, and maintenance for 12 weeks. Theses phrases consisted of the participants submitting randomized urine and breathe samples to measure the usage of cocaine and other narcotics. The results showed that during the intervention phrase, the urine specimens tested negative for cocaine more often using a combination of CM and CBT rather than the CBT only and control groups. CBT alone did not have any effect on the cocaine outcome measures. During the maintenance phrase, the use of most drugs including cocaine remained low, and no effect of CM and combination of CM/CBT. Treatment outcome model
The treatment method used for cocaine in this article is cognitive-behavioral therapy plus contingency management (CM). This dual treatment approach is very useful when treating cocaine abusers. Dimeff and Marlatt (1998) found that, using the CM approach can reduce the usage of cocaine greatly; however its effects normally diminish once treatment is terminated. Adding cognitive-behavioral therapy to the treatment method helps reduce relapses after treatment. I would use the relapse prevention model to measure the success of this treatment because it deals with high-risk conditions, coping abilities, outcome expectancies, and the abstinence violation effect. However, the relapse prevention model would also look at the factors could contribute to a relapse such as lifestyle, urges, and cravings. For example, urge-management is used with this model to assist people anticipating and accepting that their urges are normal response to an external stimulus. This approach wants a person to not identify his or her urge as a desire but rather an emotional or physiological response to an external stimulus within their environment associated to their addiction. In the research mentioned the treatment used in this article was aimed at cognitive-behavioral therapy, and that is what relapse prevention represent. So I believe this would be a good model to use and compare the success ability due to the effectiveness of the treatment approach.
Conclusion
Addiction can be a complex yet treatable obstacle to overcome. In reality, no one single treatment is appropriate for everyone due to the type of drugs and the traits of the client. Therefore, it is