A National Directory of Drug Treatment Centers and Alcohol Treatment Centers, Therapists and Specialists. A free, simple directory providing assistance and guidance for those seeking help regarding alcohol addiction, drug addiction, dependency and many other conditions that affect the mind, body and soul.
Call 800-580-9104 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Drinking Can Be Triggered By The Right Place And The Right Time

Strong cravings for alcohol can be sparked by the mere sight, smell and taste of a person’s favorite drink. Responses to such cues that are associated with the positive effects of drinking are a lead cause of relapse in abstinent alcoholics. Using a behavioral animal model, researchers of a new study, scheduled for publication in the August 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, have found that the physical surroundings where alcohol cues are experienced can greatly influence the ability of those cues to trigger relapse.

Specifically, Chaudhri and colleagues taught rats to learn that a brief tone signaled when a small amount of alcohol would be available in a fluid receptacle for them to drink. This learning occurred in a distinctive environment consisting of a particular appearance, smell, and lighting. They were then put into a second, unique context with a different appearance, smell, and lighting, and were repeatedly exposed to the tone but never given alcohol. After several sessions in this new context, the rats gradually learned that the tone no longer predicted alcohol and consequently stopped checking the fluid receptacle. However, upon re-exposure to the original context where alcohol was available, presentation of the tone once again caused the rats to immediately check for it. “This finding demonstrates the power of environments to trigger relapse to alcohol-seeking in response to alcohol-predictive cues,” said lead author Nadia Chaudhri, Ph. D., with the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UCSF. “This effect is highly detrimental to humans who are trying to abstain from drinking.”

Additionally, the authors also found that the capacity of an alcohol-associated context to trigger relapse to alcohol cues can be greatly diminished by presenting the cues repeatedly in multiple distinct contexts without alcohol. If used in the clinic, this technique of extinguishing responses to alcohol cues in multiple contexts could greatly increase the efficacy of current behavioral treatments for alcoholism. John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry and affiliated with both Yale University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, further elaborates on this idea, commenting that “it is possible that exposure-based therapies could occur in a broader range of contexts so as to enhance their effectiveness. These contexts could be real, i.e., visiting bars or liquor stores, could be created using virtual reality techniques, or could simply be recreated by patients as they imagined visiting places that triggered their urges to drink.” Additional research will clearly need to be undertaken to determine the effectiveness of such a technique, but these findings indicate that it may a promising addition to addiction therapies.
______
source: MediLexicon, http://www.medilexicon.com

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Underage drinking

Here are some sobering statistics for Madison County parents. # Madison County is in the top 10 counties in the state for underage DUI risks, says Patsy Hillard of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Central Mississippi. # While the national average is age 13 for children to start using alcohol and….

Continue reading

Drug Treatment Center Facts

Various myths surround drug treatment center news and information but do you know the facts? If you are considering drug treatment for yourself or a loved one then you have got to know the facts associated with drug treatment centers to assure that you understand both what you are getting into as well as what….

Continue reading

How AA helps an alcoholic recover from addiction

Before Bill Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, there was little hope for those with a drinking problem. Intelligent, highly successful people could not understand why they consistently got into trouble when they drank. Moreover, they could not fathom why they repeatedly returned to the bottle despite pledges of total abstinence. Alcoholics frequently visited hospitals….

Continue reading

Drinking ourselves to death

We’ve all heard the sermons and lectures. It is generally agreed that drinking alcohol – in excess – can be self-damaging. However very few of us know, or even pause to consider – how much is too much? For most of us, the post-party hangovers, scrapes and empty wallets are the only gauge of our….

Continue reading

Where do calls go?

Calls to numbers on a specific treatment center listing will be routed to that treatment center. Calls to any general helpline (non-facility specific 1-8XX numbers) could be forwarded to SAMHSA or a verified treatment provider. Calls are routed based on availability and geographic location.

The TreatmentCenters.com helpline is free, private, and confidential. There is no obligation to enter treatment. In some cases, TreatmentCenters.com could charge a small cost per call, to a licensed treatment center, a paid advertiser, this allows TreatmentCenters.com to offer free resources and information to those in need by calling the free hotline you agree to the terms of use. We do not receive any commission or fee that is dependent upon which treatment provider a caller chooses.

I NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE NOWI NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE NOW 800-580-9104Response time about 1 min | Response rate 100%
Who Answers?