Why is a life saving addiction treatment being ignored?

•  Wednesday, 04 February 2010

Addiction and dependency problems are a major concern and with NHS alcohol services being described as ‘dire' by a Health select committee of MPs and drug treatment success rates at a pitiful 4.3%, you would assume there is a desperate attempt to find treatments which actually work but you would be wrong.

A proven treatment for alcohol and drug addiction that has shown enormous success in the private sector but has had no interest from the Department of Health who are responsible for commissioning new treatment services.

‘We have contacted the NHS many times over the last 5 years to encourage the use of new treatment methods as the current treatments are out-of-date, expensive and ineffective yet we have not had a single reply. Alcohol and drug problems cost society £39 billion per annum however successful life-changing treatments are not being used' said Tony Wilks from New Way Clinic.

‘People who are drinking excessively or are addicted to drugs are being denied access to successful treatment to help them regain control. It's a huge problem and it's getting worse, effective treatment is needed now to help turn the tide of drug and alcohol abuse in the U.K' says Mr Wilks.

Hopefully the next government will be more eager to help solve the problem, until then patients will have to struggle on with ‘dire' and ineffective NHS treatments.

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Credibility of the NTA called into question after drug study

•  Monday, 05 October 2009

Last year the success rate of the addiction services was just 3.6%. However this year the National Treatment Agency (NTA) published a study in the Lancet medical journal [2.10.09] claiming ‘two thirds (66%) of people stopped using these drugs within six months of treatment initiation', either the addiction services have dramatically increased their powers of persuasion or the study is an utter sham.

As it turns out the information published in the Lancet is flawed on many levels the most obvious being the addicts in the study we simply given methadone but this allowed the NTA to claim ‘around two-thirds of people stopped using these drugs within six months'. This sparked a flurry of media interest with headlines such as 'Half of addicts quit after 6 months of treatment'.

The truth is, a few addicts may have temporarily stopped or reduce their use of 'street drugs' only because they were now using methadone (a heroin substitute) but they were still opiate dependant and after six months of treatment no-one was free of their drug dependency and despite the additional drugs provided by the state, the vast majority were still street drug dependent as well, at the end of the study.

Tony Wilks from New Way Clinic said 'the only thing this study proves is that NTA treatment programs do not work. They treated 14,656 addicts over 6 months and not a single person left the program drug free, it's a waste of tax-payer's money'.

Critics were outraged by this assessment provided by the NTA who are desperate to keep their funding of £800 million a year as Dr John Marsden, of the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, said the 'findings justify funding of heroin and crack cocaine treatment programmes costing £3,000 to £5,000 per addict'.