nhop
08-03-2009, 02:02 PM
I was listening to NPR this morning and they had something on "These days" about addiction/treatment & about an upcoming conference about this at our local university. The program featured two foreign doctors, one a Russian (I think?) & the other a Greek. When the show presenter asked a question about any new advances or ideas in addiction treatment to come out of Europe, the Greek instead of answering the question gave a big shout out to the "Therapeutic Community" Model which according to him was discovered & developed in California.
I recognize that I may have a bias against this treatment model, as I hated every minute of time that I spent in therapeutic communities. However, according to some reading I have subsequently done seems to indicate that this form of treatment is hardly effective, & some even seem to think that it may be even less effective at getting people off drugs than doing nothing. (ie, the rate at which people get themselves off drugs without any help.)
Is the TC model more effective than I have been led to believe? Perhaps I have been reading biased sources (that reflect my personal biases) Is this model really the best that the addiction treatment specialists have come up with? Are we really exporting this to other countries? (like Greece?)
I recognize that I may have a bias against this treatment model, as I hated every minute of time that I spent in therapeutic communities. However, according to some reading I have subsequently done seems to indicate that this form of treatment is hardly effective, & some even seem to think that it may be even less effective at getting people off drugs than doing nothing. (ie, the rate at which people get themselves off drugs without any help.)
Is the TC model more effective than I have been led to believe? Perhaps I have been reading biased sources (that reflect my personal biases) Is this model really the best that the addiction treatment specialists have come up with? Are we really exporting this to other countries? (like Greece?)