Problems of Inpatient Treatment of Addiction

Abstract

There are many problems encountered in the inpatient treatment of addiction. Because drugs provide emotional and physical comfort, the addict has mixed feelings about cure. There is another complexity of addiction, in that it is often a part of a rather broad antisocial problem. In treating addiction the characterologic problem of delinquency also requires treatment, and both aspects are chronic problems. Fortunately, both have a tendency to be self-limiting in duration. Meanwhile treatment presents frustrations to the professional. The addict is immature, demanding, manipulating, he is often intolerant of personal discomfort and he has difficulty in postponing gratification and' in forming deep human relationships. Where the addict appears in treatment, contraband drugs tend to appear and security measures are required during detoxification and also during the continuing period of treatment. Medical problems include the fact that many addicts have combined addiction; they are dependent upon opiates and also upon sedatives. Addicts tend to misbehave in a hospital setting, and the climate becomes quite antisocial. There is striving for sexual contact, and from time to time vulnerable employees are corrupted in one of many different ways. Therapeutic demands include attempting to put meaning into the empty life of the addict, finding help in after-care, inducing employers and others to give the addict opportunity in the community. Finally, exaggerated pessimism must be replaced by the realistic recognition that more addicts are cured than is commonly realized.