The current gold standard of addiction treatment often includes three key components: (1) receiving psychotherapy, otherwise known as “talk therapy”; (2) taking medications such as buprenorphine for opioid use disorder or acamprosate for alcohol use disorder; and (3) receiving support in the form of meetings (NA, SMART, AA, etc.), mentors, sober houses, and so on.

But the platinum standard of addiction treatment involves more than those three pieces. The result is a comprehensive strategy for successful long-term recovery.

At the Jacksonville, Florida-based addiction treatment center, where I am the chief medical officer, we use the six additional strategies listed below to help our residents recover from substance use disorder (SUD).

Co-occurring conditions are so common among the SUD population that this treatment component should probably be part of the big three treatment pieces mentioned above.

Co-occurring conditions include depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, personality disorders such as schizophrenia, and more. Again, they’re common in people with SUD—and always were. They just weren’t routinely tested for or identified until the last decade or so.

These days, an addiction........

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