Prevention and treatment of alcohol

The alcohol addiction can be treated like any disease. However, the first test of cure is abstinence from alcohol at the beginning of treatment.

Prevention of addiction to alcohol is based on information and education programs in order to achieve changes in behavior early.

Prevention

These information and education programs can also be done as:

- Information through the media to strengthening messages and target groups (distribution documentary about addiction to alcohol)

- Information workplace integrated into the health policy of the employer

- Information and education for young people in schools

- Organization of workshops and public forums to flow more easily posts in the community.

To prevent the onset of addiction to alcohol, it is also important to detect alcoholism in an individual at an early stage that is to say in the absence of physical, psychological and biological complications. This is the role of the physician who is responsible for the clinical and biological evaluation of the state of dependence.

Care and treatment

Given the importance of psychosocial factors in the onset of addiction to alcohol, its psychosocial care greatly involves the presence and support of the environment and should include:

- Couples therapy

- Family Therapy

- Group therapy

- Associations of former drinkers

- Cognitive and behavioral therapies

Drugs, however, are used for the treatment of alcohol dependence and statistics have shown that 30 to 50% of patients who received the drug treatments have become abstinent after one year.

However, the administration of these drugs in the treatment of alcoholism requires medical care associated with taking social and psychological care.

Medication

Different classes of drugs can be used in the treatment of alcohol dependence.

Benzodiazepine class

Painkillers

Reducing signs of withdrawal (tremors, sweating, palpitations)

Prevention of delirium tremens

Class disulfirames

Causes a distaste for alcohol causing unpleasant physical sensations when drinking (palpitations, nausea, vomiting, feeling of impending death)

Class of naltrexone

Remove the desire to drink alcohol

Relapse Prevention