Teen Alcohol Treatment ChoicesThere are plenty of teen alcohol treatment methods that aim specifically to address teen alcoholism. For example one of the medications found to be effective in treating people below 25 years old is Naltrexone. Studies backed up the claim that it is an effective medicine in managing alcoholism and that it could decrease the craving for alcohol. This treatment may be taken in daily by mouth or could be injected once a month. There are several other alcoholism treatments specifically aimed at addressing teen alcoholism problems. Depending on the severity of the problem, doctors sometimes recommend inpatient or outpatient center care for the alcoholic teen. Drug and alcohol counseling is also part of teen alcohol treatment. Doctors sometimes recommend medicines often used to treat withdrawal symptoms during detoxification such as an anti anxiety medicine like diazepam. It is believed to treat withdrawal symptoms like delirium tremens. Some of these sedatives are classed as muscle-relaxing drugs and work by depressing the central nervous system. They are usually safe to treat alcohol withdrawal but are not advisable to be taken for a long period. Teen alcoholic patients can also take seizure medicines which are found to reduce or eliminate severe symptoms of withdrawal during detoxification. Examples of seizure medicines are carbamazepine, valproate, and phenytoin. They were found to be effective in reducing the severity of withdrawal symptoms and emotional distress related to withdrawal. These medicines are approved for use over a long period of time. Treating alcoholism in teens is done also through individual-tailored drug counseling and by looking at short term behavior-related goals. A type of therapeutic treatment that is applicable to teen alcoholism is the twelve-step program that sets guiding principles to recover from alcoholism. It involves the admission that a person has a serious problem, recognition that an outside power could help, and seeking deliverance from ones defects. A proven treatment approach with teens is a specialized approach that uses peer pressure. It was found out that teens care greatly about what others (especially teens within their age bracket) think about them. This treatment strategy takes advantage of peer influence to pave the way for behavioral changes. Another strategy that could be applied is the motivational enhancement therapy. This is about working to get the alcoholic teen involved and interested in his treatment. One example is the so-called motivation interviewing (MI). This specialized technique works at a pace and with content dictated by the teen client. In this way it works to stimulate the teens interest in the therapy. Originally developed to work with problem drinkers, MI has now been successfully used and tested among a broad range of health behaviors. Yet another treatment applicable to teen alcoholism is to urge control, which addresses the patterns that lead to drug use. The stimulus control treatment, on the other hand, teaches the patient to stay away from environment that could be associated to alcohol use. The social control method of treatment involves family members and other people important to the patient in the whole treatment process. In alcoholism, family treatments have been shown to be effective. These include the so-called multidimensional family therapy (MDFT), certain group therapies and multi family educational intervention (MFE). The latter has been found to be more effective though. Of course long term residential care of several months is an option for dealing with teen alchoholism. Naturally, it would not be a last resort. In the residential setting wider associated problems can be explored. These include such things as the teens school life, and his relationship with family and peers. |