20th January 2021

Alternative Addiction Treatment: Why Governments are Embracing Change At Last

As the opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities, end lives, and subject individuals and families to the horrors of addiction, a tipping point has been reached. Everyone knows somebody who has been prescribed a powerful, prescription painkiller and struggled with dependence. This health crisis, coupled with changing social attitudes that de-stigmatize addicts and addiction, has sparked a move to push the afflicted away from criminal justice systems and toward health care and treatment. As we begin to examine addiction without the blinders of moral censure and the criminalization of those in its grasp, citizens and their governments are exploring bold new alternative addiction treatment options that have shown great promise in healing the addicted. Let’s examine the factors behind this trend, and what it means going forward.

Big Pharma

For years large, profitable, and seemingly respectable pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, McKesson, and Amerisource Bergen aggressively and misleadingly marketed addictive painkillers in spite of mounting evidence that the drugs were being abused. Communities were flooded with drugs such as OxyContin, and the effects were devastating. As legislators and the public realized the magnitude of the crisis, lawsuits mounted, PR firms scrambled, and treatment facilities were overwhelmed. One effect of the opioid crisis was a loss of trust in both drug manufacturers and the medical establishment, which elected to throw dangerous substances at the symptoms of pain, rather than addressing its root causes. This has led public health officials and addicts to move away from profitable, traditional treatments such as methadone, which create dependence and examine the problem of addiction with fresh eyes. 

Neuroscience Breakthroughs

Over the past thirty years, our understanding of the nature of addiction has been fundamentally altered by technologies that give us access to the functioning of the addicted brain. We can now observe the neurological processes and genetic predispositions that feed addiction and create treatments that effectively put this information to use. We’ve learned that changes occur in the addicted brain which dramatically affect how addicts view reward and motivation, regulate emotion, and maintain (or fail to maintain) executive control.

As one researcher wrote of the changes that occur: “Most prominent are the disruptions of an individual's ability to prioritize behaviors that result in long-term benefit over those that provide short-term rewards and the increasing difficulty exerting control over these behaviors even when associated with catastrophic consequences.” Understanding the mental changes that addicts undergo is fundamental to creating alternative addiction treatment models that will rewire the brain, and allow those suffering from substance abuse disorders to return to themselves.

The Truth About Trauma

We’ve long known that trauma and addiction go hand in hand. As the physician and philosopher Gabor Mate has been preaching for years, addiction is often a response to pain and childhood trauma. Researchers at Harvard University have come to realize that Mate’s theories on the nature of addiction were worth exploring. Kerry J. Ressler, chief scientific officer at McLean Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School has been researching both the psychological and neurological effects of trauma and has found that an overwhelming majority of addicts have been traumatized. He claims his research proves that addiction is “a biological disease. We all have innate drives toward food, sex, and other novelties, but when you begin to abuse drugs, these drives become hijacked so that the normal drives are not nearly as rewarding anymore.”

Dr. Ressler’s research explored the links between addiction, trauma, the amygdala, and the orbitofrontal cortex, areas of the brain which regulate goal-oriented behavior and emotional regulation. He found that increased levels of a neuroplasticity protein, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), drive goal-oriented behavior. In contrast, stress or developmental trauma may lead to atrophy of the OFC neurotrophin systems, which in turn can lead to increased habitual behavior, such as drug-seeking. 

It’s clear that reversing these changes in the brain’s functioning will be an important factor in developing alternative addiction treatment models and ultimately defeating addiction in the years to come.

Evolving Understanding

Changes in our understanding of addiction have gone hand in hand with society’s changing attitudes towards drugs. In many Western countries, Harm Reduction has supplanted the war on drugs, cannabis and psilocybin are increasingly being decriminalized, and forward-thinking societies have come to understand that treatment rather than prison is the appropriate response to excessive drug use.

Meanwhile, the potential of utilizing psychoactive substances medicinally has gone mainstream. Using marijuana and CBD to offset the effects of chemotherapy and glaucoma was just the tip of the iceberg. Best-selling authors like Michael Pollan and Tim Ferriss have realized that substances like ibogaine, ayahuasca, and psilocybin, all traditionally used as medicines around the world, have the potential to effectively treat a host of psychiatric ailments ranging from depression and anxiety to addiction. And even celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow are going on talk shows to discuss the incredible potential of psychedelics as medicine.

Scientific studies are confirming that psychedelics can aid the brain in creating neuroplasticity and manufacturing new neurons. Iboga has also been proven to restore dopamine receptors in the brain to a pre-addicted state, as well as dramatically lessening the symptoms of withdrawal for those in recovery. Other studies on ayahuasca and psilocybin in treating alcohol and drug addiction have shown that these substances have a beneficial effect on the neural pathways that influence habit, reward, and pleasure. 

Change is Coming

As 2021 dawns, we expect all of the trends mentioned above to push governments and regulators towards action. As we’ve seen with the legalization of cannabis and same-sex marriage, changing social attitudes can prompt legislators to move quickly. As overdose death tolls mount and addiction continues to tear families and communities apart, we urge governments around the world to act quickly to adopt alternative addiction treatment approaches. Millions of lives are at stake, and every promising alternative addiction treatment option needs to be explored. If you or someone you know is ready to try an alternative treatment that we know saves lives, reach out to Iboga Tree Healing House today!