INNOVATIONS in ADDICTION TREATMENT and RECOVERY

Addiction is an enigma, with authorities in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychology, pharmacology, sociology, law, and religion each offering distinctive and often conflicting views on its nature and solution. Inter- and intra- professional debates flourish on whether addiction is a problem of body, mind, morals (character/ values), spirit, or social environment. Institutions charged with the management of addiction often base their methods on one of these dimensions at the exclusion of others. We see, for example, a split between programs emphasizing the use of medications juxtaposed against programs emphasizing psychosocial approaches to treatment with further splits within these branches. As a result, what treatment one receives depends primarily upon the organizational door one enters rather than scientific consensus or personalized evaluation.