Residential treatment programs can also be very effective, especially for ones with more severe problems. For example, therapeutic communities or TCs are highly structured programs in which patients remain at a residence, typically for 6 to 12 months.

  TCs patients may include those with relatively long histories of drug addiction, involvement in serious criminal activities and seriously impaired social functioning. Nowadays TCs are also design to accommodate the needs of pregnant women or women with children. The focus of the TC is on the re-socialization of the patient to a drug-free and crime-free lifestyle.

    Medications such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, or neuroleptics, may be critical for treatment success when patients have cooccurring mental disorders such as depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder or psychosis.

  Nearly all addicted individuals believe in the beginning that they can stop using drugs on their own and most try to stop without treatment. However, most of these attempts result in failure to achieve long-term abstinence. Research has shown that long-term drug use results in significant changes in brain function that persist long after the individual stops using drugs. These drug-induced changes in brain function may have many behavioral consequences, including the compulsion to use drugs despite adverse consequences the defining characteristic of addiction.