Behavioral Therapies

Behavioral therapies are helpful to addicts in the following ways: by motivating people to participate in drug treatment offer strategies for coping with drug cravings; teaching addicts ways to avoid drugs and prevent relapse; and helping individuals deal with relapse if it occurs. Behavioral therapies can also help people improve communication, relationships and parenting skills, as well as aid family dynamics. Many treatment programs employ both individual and group therapies. Group therapy offers social reinforcement and helps enforce behavioral contingencies that promote abstinence and a lifestyle without drugs. Some physicians employ established behavioral treatments, like contingency management and cognitive behavioral therapy, in group settings to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness. However, particularly with adolescents with addictions, there is a danger of iatrogenic or inadvertent effects of group treatment. Because behavioral therapies address different aspects of addiction, combinations of treatments and medications may be more effective than either approach alone. Doctors administer treatments for drug abuse and addiction in many different settings through a variety of behavioral and pharmacological approaches.

Insurance Protocols

Insurance companies use statistics to define protocols for the average patient and the statistically most cost effective treatment. These results in rules requiring doctors to get approvals from insurance companies to do procedures or prescribe certain drugs hinder doctors' ability to provide good timely care. Insurers are in the business of making cost effective health care decisions. Insurers often require doctors to get approvals before they can authorize certain types of care in an attempt to save costs and prevent unnecessary procedures. On average, this can be cost effective for the insurance policy. However, for many, those decisions result is slower treatment, worse outcomes, and adverse side effects.

The Hormones

Deep sleep triggers the release of growth hormone, which fuels growth in children and boosts muscle mass and the repair of cells and tissues in children and adults. The effect of sleep on the release of sex hormones also encourages puberty and fertility.
Consequently, women who work at night and tend to lack sleep are, therefore, more likely to have trouble conceiving or to miscarry.
During sleep, the body creates more cytokines, which are cellular hormones that help the immune system fight various infections. Lack of sleep can reduce the ability to fight off common infections. Research also reveals that a lack of sleep can reduce the response of the body to the flu vac­cine. For example, sleep-deprived volunteers given the flu vaccine produced less than half as many flu antibodies as those who were well rested and given the same vaccine.
Although lack of exercise and other factors are important contribu­tors, the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity appears to be related, at least in part, to chronically getting inadequate sleep. Evidence is growing that sleep is a powerful regulator of appetite, energy use and weight control. During sleep, the body increases the production of the appetite suppressor leptin and the appetite stimu­lant grehlin decreases. Studies find that the less people sleep, the more likely these people are to be overweight or obese and prefer eating foods that are higher in calories and carbohydrates. People who report an average total sleep time of five hours a night, for example, are much more likely to become obese compared to people who sleep seven to eight hours a night.
A number of hormones released during sleep also control the use of energy by the body. A distinct rise and fall of blood sugar levels during sleep appears to relate to sleep stage. Not getting enough sleep overall or not getting enough of each stage of sleep disrupts this pattern. One study found that, when healthy young men slept only four hours a night for six nights in a row, their insulin and blood sugar levels mim­icked those seen in people who were developing diabetes. Another study found that women who slept less than seven hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes over time than those who slept between seven and eight hours a night.