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Pre-Addiction: New Approaches to Drug and Alcoholic Treatment

Thanks to a substantial amount of research on the topic of addiction and treatment methods, a great deal of progress has been made in the past 20 years. For those in the field of psychiatry, the improvements in how patients with addictions are treated has been very satisfying.

The way health care professionals’ understanding of drug dependency has increased is all thanks to a better knowledge about brain chemistry. As a result, it is easier to identify which treatment methods would be most effective for a particular patient, including medications that are far more effective than in the past. Furthermore, there is more awareness about mental conditions that often accompany addiction — such as PTSD, ADHD, depression, and eating disorders.

Another development that will certainly make a difference going forward is the understanding of “pre-addiction,” which involves diagnosing and treating the addiction at the earliest stage possible.

What is Pre-Addiction?

Several prominent experts at the US National Institute on Drug Abuse recently proposed the term “pre-addiction” to describe people who are mildly or moderately addicted to a particular drug. This is comparable to the concept of “prediabetes” in which the patient doesn’t have full-blown diabetes, but is in danger of developing it if intervention does not take place. Identifying and tackling the problem early means lower medical costs and higher quality of life.