3.4 - Key Question Flashcards
What is key question?
My key question is how effective is drug therapy for treating addictions? (for example methadone to treat heroin addiction)
AO1
- The number of people addicted to heroin in England 2013/14 was just under 300,000 whilst the number successfully using drug therapy to become free of the drugs was just 10%
- Addiction is a chronic disease and so people cannot just stop for a few days and be cured. Most patients require long term care to achieve sustained abstinence from places such as methadone clinics
- drug therapy, like the use of methadone can be used as a replacement drug for heroin, stopping withdrawal symptoms, treatment also includes other therapies such as psychotherapy
- methadone has to be prescribed by a doctor and the addict must attend a clinic once a day to receive treatment, weaning themselves off of physical and psychological dependence to heroin
Issue for society
This is an issue for society because the cost of treating addicts is expensive for the NHS as addiction is a long term chronic illness and requires methadone + treatment over many years. Drug addiction also breaks down family relationships and many children end up in care and addicts in need of benefits or housing, adding additional costs
strengths
- addiction can be treated in many ways, eg heron addiction can be treated by giving the addict methadone as a heroin substitute in a controlled manner to gradually reduce dependence and decrease temptation to relapse as addicts don’t experience withdrawal. therefore this is effective as methadone is taken up by the same mu-opioid receptor site so the addicts wont experience the high when relapsing on a drug like heroin
- This can also be supported by the study carried out by Blattler et al (2002) where the provision of free heroin and careful monitoring and counciling allowed many poly-drug users to cut ties with the drug scene. Addicts using cocaine daily dropped from 84% to 48%. therefore it was effective as the free heroin fixed many crime problems and reduced sharing of needles so bad health and injections were decreased.
- drug therapy can help users avoid withdrawal symptoms and the effects of methadone last longer than heroin with it lasting in the synapse for 24 hours as opposed to 12. Therefore it is effective as the drug is only taken once a day so addicts can start to rebuild their lives and gain permanent jobs to help them stay clean and avoid the drug scene.
weakness
Li et al (2013) showed cues for heroin addiction linked to activation and connectivity within the brain eg the limbic system and prefrontal cortex, this suggests that cues themselves affect brain functioning. therefore drug therapy involving a substitute to help with withdrawal and addiction may not be enough if conditioned cues like same location and friends are not addressed as they tempted to relapse
