Opiate Addiction

Opiate addiction encompasses the abuse of a variety of legal and illegal drugs. As more opiate derivative painkillers, such as hydrcodone, Darvocet, and Norco are prescribed, opiate addiction numbers continue to rise in the United States. Those numbers are even more alarming when new users under the age of eighteen are taken into consideration.

When taken orally, injected, or smoked, opiates travel through the bloodstream and elicit response from opiate receptors in the brain. The movement through the bloodstream is rapid, causing a high that hits fast, but often lasts a long time. While opiates produce a pleasure or reward response in the brain, they also slow down a user's breathing rate. In the case of Heroin, the fastest acting opiate, a user's breathing can completely stop.

Treatment for Opiate Addiction

Due to the mental and physical aspects of opiate addiction, many therapies have low success rates in completely treating the disease. Psychological therapy may be coupled with medicinal treatment in order to lessen the pain of withdrawal. But many times, a patient's physical addiction to the drug remains even after undergoing treatment.

Accelerated Neuro-Regulation (ANR) is a rapid drug treatment that attempts to attack physical addiction at the body's opiate receptors. During ANR, those receptors are cleansed of opiates, while the patient sleeps under anesthesia. Upon waking, the patient's body is free of its physical addiction, and the patient has, in essence, slept through withdrawal. When released from the clinic, patients will undergo an After Care process that can last up to a year. Therapies that utilize ANR, such as The Waismann Method, consistently report higher success rates in treating opiate addiction than do clinics that practice more traditional techniques.