Which is the best treatment for drug addiction? In-patient or outpatient rehab, or detox? Sadly, many people have to ask these questions in order to help themselves or loved ones. The best drug addiction treatments include behavioral and medical health services tailored to the patient's needs and prevent relapse in the long run. In short, the best treatments are specific to the challenges of each individual patient.

There are many different treatments out there to help patients struggling with drug addiction. Some of those include:

• Medication
• Counseling
• Treatment for other co-existing mental-health struggles like anxiety
• Withdrawal treatment medical devices and applications
• Preventing relapse in the long-term

Using Technology For Long-Term Recovery

The ideal treatment includes a mix of each item listed above. However, one of the most important steps in this process is giving patients the tools to stay off drugs in the long-term and prevent a relapse.

When patients get treated for addiction, they need to have communication with their therapist through technology. Therapists can send surveys to patients to see how they're doing and what help they need at that time. This helps the patient and the clinician.

However, not all electronic health record (EHR) software systems have this capability. And even if they do, they can be difficult to implement. You can learn more about how to choose a behavioral health EHR software here. You can also see our software features and benefits here.

Inpatient, Outpatient or Detox? Which Is The Best Treatment For Drug Addiction?

It's hard to know which drug treatment is best. To help, I'll break down what each one is and its benefits.

Inpatient Rehab Treatment

This is when a patient temporarily lives in a rehab facility. Inpatient treatment can be ideal for people with severe addictions, those who lack a solid support system, and people who have mental struggles like anxiety or depression. They usually offer individual and group therapy. Patients who have relapsed in the past may want to consider inpatient treatment.

Outpatient Rehab Treatment

Not all people need inpatient therapy. It's actually better for some people to start in outpatient therapy. That being said, outpatient treatment can also be a second step for people who have completed inpatient therapy. Outpatient treatment doesn't provide around-the-clock care but the treatments should still last at least 90 days. Anything less than that and the program isn't likely to be effective.

Detox Programs

Detox programs are good because they help people get drugs out of their systems safely. They're a good first step for people with moderate to severe drug addictions. These programs can be especially useful for people with severe withdrawal symptoms. By using medication, they can taper down a patient's usage until his/her body can handle not having drugs in it.

Are Drug Treatment Programs Successful?

The answer to this question is yes, they can be very successful. According to research by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most people who get treatment are able to overcome drug addiction and become contributing members of society again. I should mention that a person's success in overcoming addiction depends on several factors:

• Severity of the addiction
• Cause and underlying problems
• Getting treatment specific to the addiction
• Quality of interaction between the patient and the providers

Principles Of An Effective Drug Treatment

Whether you're a medical practitioner looking to prescribe specific treatment for someone or a patient trying to figure out which is the best treatment for drug addiction, there are principles to consider. Here's a list of effective drug-treatment principles from the National Institute on Drug Abuse:

1. No treatment is right for everyone: The treatment needs to match the addiction to help that specific individual be a fully-functioning member of society.
2. It needs to be very accessible: Overcoming addiction is hard. That's why the barrier to entry needs to be very easy. They need to be able to get treatment the moment they're ready.
3. Addiction affects brain function and behavior: Using drugs changes your brain's function. This is part of why people frequently relapse down the road. This is one of the reasons patients need to have good communication with their therapists through technology.
4. Get treated for the right amount of time: The right treatment will be based on the severity of the addiction. Most people need at least three months of treatment in order to overcome their addiction, according to research.
5. Focus on more than just the addiction: Rarely is it just about drugs. The right treatment will focus on problems dealing with work, the law, health, and the patient's psychology, as well as the addiction.

What Makes A Good Drug And Alcohol Treatment Center?

Now that you know how to find which drug treatment is best, you might wonder what makes a good drug and alcohol treatment center? Just as no treatment is right for everyone, the same is true of treatment centers. There isn't one treatment center that fits the needs of every person battling drug addiction.

There are more than 14,000 drug and alcohol rehab centers in the US. Here are some things to look for when choosing a rehab center.

What Are Its Specialties?

Different treatment centers have different specialties. Whether the center has a lot of specialities or only a few, what matters most is if they specialize in the treatment you require. Look for a center that's highly-rated and well-respected for the treatment you need.

Is The Staff Accredited?

You know who deals with patients the most? The center's staff. That's why it's really important to make sure they're accredited and dedicated. The best way to figure this out is to ask questions. Is everyone on staff a registered nurse? How many physicians work at the center? How involved are they in the treatment? Don't assume that just because they're accredited that it's a great treatment center. That's not always the case. But it is a good indicator.

Do They Focus On Underlying Problems?

As I mentioned earlier, the problem is rarely, if ever, just the drugs or alcohol. So, getting treatment only for those issues, without focusing on the underlying cause, won't result in lasting change. The best treatment centers focus on fixing the underlying problem that's causing the addiction.

Do They Offer Multiple Types Of Therapy?

People looking to overcome drug abuse should get several different types of therapy. Different therapies help because they look at the problem from different angles. Group therapy is excellent and helps a lot of people. And 1-on-1 therapy is just as important and effective. A treatment center that focuses on multiple kinds of therapy will be much more effective in helping people overcome addiction than those that don't.

What's Their Success Rate?

While there's no single factor that determines if a treatment center is good or not, this is probably the most important factor. For the most part, the best treatment centers have higher success rates.

But look deeper than the surface on this. How do they determine success? Is it based on the number of people who complete the program or former patients staying sober for x number of months? Also, keep in mind that some treatment specialties have lower success rates than others. So, that begs the question, how high is that treatment center's success rate in that specialty? How does it compare to other treatment centers with the same specialty?

Conclusion

So, which is the best treatment for drug addiction? It really depends on the needs of the individual and the severity of their addiction. What's incredibly important is choosing the right treatment center.

Are drug treatment programs successful? They can be very successful! What's really important here is getting the person into a really good treatment facility. You can know if a drug treatment center is good by looking at their specialties, staff accreditations if they focus on underlying problems and focus on multiple types of therapy, and their success rate.

There's a common concern out there: Can you trust the information you find on the internet? And just as important, if not more so, is: "How much of healthcare information online is accurate?". Here, we'll dive into how to find accurate healthcare information online.

The short answer is: It depends. You can't trust all of the healthcare information you find online but some of it is definitely reliable. Let me explain.

1. Use trusted sites

When you're looking for healthcare information online, you'll probably start with a Google search. But you don't want to trust every website you find. Some of them will have outdated information.

A good way to know if a website is reliable is if it's sponsored by Federal Government agencies. To check for this, go to usa.gov. While that's a great resource to help you verify a medical website, it's not necessarily the first resource you should use. Here's a list of medical websites that are trustworthy:

1. MedlinePlus.gov: Not only does this website have a lot of useful and accurate healthcare information, but it also has an online tutorial on how to know if you can trust online healthcare information,
2. Smart Patients: This website was founded to help patients learn about medical developments dealing with their conditions and it does exactly that. Smart Patients has a built-in search engine that helps people find and track clinical trials of their choosing and discuss them on the website's forums,
3. Drugs.com: A huge part of healthcare is the medications you need to take. Drugs.com is fantastic because it gives you information about drugs, their uses, and how they might react to other medications. This site also has its own search engine to help you find legal drugs by their appearance or name. It should be noted that the search engine only pulls from the US,
4. National Health Information Center (NHIC): NHIC helps patients and medical professionals get in touch with organizations to get reliable answers to their healthcare questions. This site also keeps a calendar of days, weeks, and months with the purpose of helping people learn about various healthcare topics,
5. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: Like USA.gov, this website helps patients verify a medical website's reliability. It has a list of healthcare websites that are useful and also detailed guidelines on how to evaluate a medical website.

2. Check the healthcare information dates

If a website doesn't have current information, that's a huge red flag. When you're searching online, pay close attention to the date the information was written. If the information is older, it could still be relevant and accurate, but it could also be out of date. As a general rule of thumb, the most current medical information is generally the most trustworthy.

3. Ask yourself some questions

If you're using a website other than the ones mentioned above, ask yourself some questions.

1. Does it have .gov at the end of its URL? Another general rule of thumb, if the website ends with .gov, it's probably pretty reliable. This doesn't mean that websites ending in something else like .com or .org aren't reliable. But most government healthcare websites are solid sources of information. You can also check the site's "about us" section to see who runs it,
2. What's the purpose of the website? Is it selling you something? The websites we mentioned above are all there to solve a problem in the medical field and many of them are government-run. Look into the purpose of the website. If it seems sketchy or like the main purpose is to sell you something, then you should take it with a grain of salt,
3. Where does the website's medical information come from? Is it based on medical research or does it come from somewhere else? Does the website tell you where the information comes from? If the information is based on scientific research from a reputable source that's a great start,
4. Does the website promise the moon? Typically, if information seems too good to be true, it usually is. If they promise you a huge return with very little work or effort, then you should be very skeptical of that site,
5. Have experts reviewed the information? Quality medical information will have been reviewed by experts. Check the bottom of the page for the names fo medical experts who approve the information.

Is the site news or advertising?

Telling the difference between news and advertising websites can be hard. A lot of the time, advertising websites try to look like news websites to seem more credible. They'll even use logos from actual news sites.

Fake news or advertising websites tend to endorse certain products and even link to sales websites. News websites rarely do either of those things. If all of the comments are positive and you aren't able to comment, that's usually a sign it's a fake news/advertising website. News organizations almost always let you comment and they will usually have negative and positive comments.

Summary: How much of healthcare information online is accurate?

In summation, you should always be skeptical when looking for healthcare information and make sure you run what you find online by your doctor. Check to see what kind of institution runs the website and when it was last updated. And you should only trust information that's unbiased and based on scientific research.

One of the best ways to avoid websites with inaccurate information is to start with trusted websites. Use the websites we listed above to start your search. Run the website through usa.gov to see if it's run by the government.

Following these steps will help you find accurate healthcare information online. How much of healthcare information online is accurate? A lot. But there's also a lot of inaccurate healthcare information online. You just have to be careful about it.

Have you ever come across a healthcare website with information that just seemed too good to be true? Comment "yes" if you have and "no" if you haven't. I'm just curious how many of you have run into that and if it's been a frequent problem.

It's no secret that doctors know a lot. And sometimes, we think we know better. Sometimes we're right! But what are some things that doctors know, but most people don't? We want to look beyond the obvious stuff - beyond the fact that they know how to diagnose your sickness or how long it will take you to recover from an in-grown toenail surgery.

So, we created a list to answer the question, "what are some things that doctors know, but most people people don't". Here's a list of 14 things doctors know that most of us don't. 

1. You Don't Have To Be Super Smart To Become A Surgeon

There's this belief out there that in order to work in the medical field in any way, you have to be brilliant. However, it just isn't true. Yes, there are many doctors out there who are incredibly smart and have a work ethic to match it, but they aren't all brainiacs. Sorry surgeons.

When it comes to surgeons, the average general physician tends to have more medical knowledge. Surgeons just tend to be better at what they get paid to do - surgery. And that's okay. They don't need to be amazing at everything medical. They just need to be good at what they do. 

2. Not Everyone Who Went To Med School Can Prescribe Medication

The reality is that there are doctors who went to medical school who can't give you a prescription. There are lots of medical doctors who went to med school that can't prescribe medication. Pathologists and radiologists are a couple of examples.

3. Not All Doctors Can Read X-Rays

This is actually true of more than just X-rays. It also includes CT scans and MRIs. Frequently, when a patient asks a question about any of these, the doctor will often just read the report. Only the radiologist knows how to read your X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. In fact, it takes a lot of experience to understand what's normal and abnormal in these images.

Have you ever had a doctor point out something in an X-ray and wondered how they were able to find that? I certainly have. Usually, the doctor showing it to you can't find it either - at least, not without help.

4. Stethoscopes Are Mostly Just To Hear Your Heartbeat

There are not a lot doctors can tell from just listening to your heartbeat. They can tell if it's irregular or regular and maybe a little more. But that's about it. There isn't a lot of diagnosing they can do just by listening. For instance, a doctor can't listen to your heartbeat and know that you need a triple bypass.

5. Doctors Don't Always Live Super Healthy Lives

They should know better, right? Anyone who knows a doctor closely can tell you that some doctors do things they shouldn't. A lot of doctors would admit this. There are doctors that smoke, eat way too much junk food, are overworked, and don't get enough sleep. This isn't to say that all doctors are this way. But hey, they aren't perfect.

6. They Aren't All Rich

Growing up, I thought that if you were a doctor then you must be rich - Filthy rich even! But doctors' salaries can be very deceptive. In fact, doctors actually make less per hour than teachers. That sounds outlandish but it's true.

When you consider the number of hours worked by both, the time spent in school and student loan debt acquired, doctors don't make as much as you think. You can read more about how doctors make less than teachers from Best Medical Degrees.

7. The Placebo Effect is a Real Thing

Even though doctors know this, they can't explain it. For some reason, believing that it will fix the ailment actually works. This isn't always completely cut-and-dry, but patients who believe the treatments their doctor prescribes for them tend to see more improvement to their ailment.

What is the Placebo effect?

The Placebo effect is when someone takes a pill or treatment and receives a positive effect that can't actually be attributed to the treatment. Its benefits are instead attributed alone to the patient's belief that obtaining this treatment will fix the problem. You can learn more about the Placebo effect here.

8. Most Disease Treatments Should Continue Beyond Symptom Relief

Treatment for diseases need to continue even after the symptoms have gone away. It happens all the time that a patient has a disease, gets treatment, the symptoms go away, and the disease isn't cured. While the symptoms may be gone, the disease usually isn't and needs more treatment. When the patient stops getting treatment, the disease will come back.

This is part of why it's so important for doctors to use an electronic health record (EHR) that keeps the patient's treatment going. You can learn more about what to look for in an EHR software here. Or you can get a free demo of our EHR software.

9. You Can't Use Electric Shock To Bring Everyone Back To Life

Don't be fooled by movies and TV shows. It is true that using electric shock can bring someone "back to life" but only in very specific situations. It only works in a specific type of heart arrhythmia. In other situations, this procedure can actually kill the patient.

10. They Know The Sex of Your Baby at 12 Weeks

Sometimes doctors know things before they tell you. Knowing the sex of your unborn baby is one of those times!

Doctors perform ultrasounds early in the pregnancy to check the baby's health. However, by the twelfth week, doctors can usually see the sex of the baby if it's in the right position. By week 13, they can usually tell with extreme accuracy, but it's against the law for them to tell you the sex of the baby that early.

11. Saying "I Don't Know" Can Be A Good Thing

If your doctor says "I don't know", that's a sign of honesty. No doctor is right all of the time and one that pretends to be is likely not always being honest with you. If a doctor is willing to be up front with you and ask other doctors for help, that's a great sign he's trustworthy.

12. Most Fevers Don't Need Antibiotics

Many illnesses don't get better with antibiotics. When it comes to fevers, antibiotics won't help the fever more quickly, most of the time. In fact, most fevers can't even be diagnosed early on. It's not that no treatment is required for most fevers, it's just that they don't need that specific kind of treatment.

13. Famous Doctors Aren't Always The Best

It's hard to know if a doctor is really a good doctor. Ratings and reviews don't always help because they can be heavily influenced by the nurses, wait time, etc. A bad outcome doesn't necessarily mean the doctor did anything wrong. Sometimes that's just the way things go. And being nice doesn't equal being a good doctor either.

One way to know how good a doctor is can be by asking other doctors that know him/her. Nothing is fool-proof, but asking people with first-hand knowledge of his/her expertise can be really helpful in finding an excellent doctor.

14. Vitamins Are Usually A Waste of Money

Why we do say "usually? Because they're useful if you have a deficiency of that particular vitamin. But, there's no need to take a bunch of different vitamins every day.

Conclusion: What are some things that doctors know, but most people don't?

So, what are some things that doctors know, but most people don't? They know so much that no list could capture everything. But we managed to get a lot of the insider information. Here’s a quick recap:

• They aren't all rich
• You don't have to be brilliant to be a doctor (but it helps)
• They can't all prescribe medication
• Not all doctors can read X-rays, CT scans, or MRIs
• Stethoscopes can't usually result in a diagnosis
• Doctors eat and do unhealthy things (they're human too)
• A patient's belief in a treatment can help it be successful
• Disease treatments should continue after symptom relief
• Electric shock can only work in very specific situations
• They usually know the sex of your baby at 12 or 13 weeks
• A doctor who admits not knowing can be a good thing
• Fame doesn't equal the best doctor
• Most fevers don't require antibiotics
• Vitamins are't usually worth the money

What do you think of our list of "what are some things that doctors know, but most people people don't"? Is there anything we didn't add to the list that we should have? If so, comment below and we'll get it added.

If you're looking for a new behavioral health or addiction recovery EHR, we'll give you a free demo of ours. Just fill out the form below to get one scheduled.