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| Principles of Treatment |  Principles of treatment include:
• No single treatment is appropriate for all individuals.
• Treatment needs to be readily available.
• Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of the individual not just his or her drug addiction.
• An individual’s treatment and services plan must be assessed often and modified to meet the person’s changing needs.
• Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical for treatment effectiveness.
• Counseling and other behavioral therapies are critical components of virtually all effective treatments for addiction.
• Medications are an important element of treatment for many patients especially when combined with counseling and other behavioral therapies.
• Addicted individuals with coexisting mental disorders should have both disorders treated in an integrated way.
• Medical management of withdrawal syndrome is only the first stage of addiction treatment and by itself does little to change long-term drug use.
• Treatment does not need to be voluntary to be effective.
• Possible drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously.
• Treatment programs should provide assessment for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases and should provide counseling to help patients modify or change behaviors that place themselves or others at risk of infection.
• Recovery from drug addiction can be a long-term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment.
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