The move away from abstinence based addiction treatment
As you saw in lecture this week, there are many different approaches to treating addiction. Two of the most widely known models of treatment include abstinence-based and harm reduction approaches. The harm reduction approach is gaining more popularity with the rise of the opioid epidemic and is based on the idea that ensuring the safety of patients does not necessarily require full sobriety.
To begin, read the articles provided in the weblinks below:
Harm reduction: An approach to reducing risky health behaviors in adolescents
The Move Away from Abstinence Based Addiction Treatment
Then, in your initial post, please address the following prompts:
Identify and describe the differences between the abstinence-based and harm reduction approaches.
Explain which approach you believe is most effective in treating addiction.
Finally, detail what factors you believe should be considered when determining which approach to recommend for a patient.
