1. 4.05- Drug Addiction Is A Disease–
So What Do We Do About It?
BMT 2
Unit 4
Lesson 5
2. Objectives
• Understand addiction is a chronic disease that is
likely to recur
• Recognize treatment is most effective when it
combines medication and behavioral treatments
• Be able to explain how treatment for addiction is
similar to that for other chronic diseases
• Recognize research shows treatment can be very
effective even when treatment is required
3. Activity: Is Addiction Treatable?
• What is disease?
• Chronic= persists over a long period of
time
• Acute= lasts only a short time but may
have a rapid onset and marked intensity
4. More questions about treating addiction
• Is addiction acute or chronic?
• Do all diseases or illnesses affect people
the same way?
5. Activity: Learning about treatments for
addiction
Go to this website:
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/n
ih2/Addiction/activities/lesson5_interviews.html
1- Ruth
2- Mike
3- Carol
Disease-Students are likely to say a disease is some problem with the body that makes a person feel bad. They may also respond that a disease is something you see a doctor about or take medicine for. Students will list a variety of diseases and conditions. If they don’t include both short-term minor diseases (such as a cold or flu) and long-term complex diseases (such as diabetes or heart disease), prompt them with questions such as, Is a cold a disease? Is diabetes?
No. Some are longer lasting and require more intervention from healthcare providers than others.
*Students’ explanations should include something about the changes that occur in the brain as a result of drug use (Lessons 2, 3, and 4) and something about the compulsive, nonvoluntary nature of addiction.
*Some require medicines, others require psychological treatment, and some require both. Students may give a cold as an example of a short-term illness that doesn’t require a great deal of treatment and diabetes or heart disease as a longer-lasting illness that does require a lot of treatment. Students should realize that there are similarities as well as differences in disease treatment.
