I worked at the drug and alcohol detoxification centre this week. In this unit, people who are trying to get sober and abstain from alcohol and drug use are brought into the clinic. Various questions are asked in order to determine the type of treatment to be given, for example, the type of substance that is being abused, the method of abuse, family history, underlying medical conditions and so on. One obvious symptoms of detoxification I observed was withdrawal symptom which is the body reaction to lack of alcohol or drugs in the system. Common drugs used in my unit are; naloxone, this is an opioid antagonist and it also helps with nausea and vomiting experienced by the patient during the detoxification process. Benzodiazepines are used for the treatment of anxiety, Carbamazepine is also used for withdrawal seizures. Patients are also involved in nature therapy
Hi Damilola and thank you for your reflections texts and mid-evaluation. It sounds like you’ve had a very versatile and educational internship. You have learned a lot of new information about mental illnesses and their treatment, as well as substance abuse disorders. You recognize withdrawal symptoms and know how to treat them. It’s nice to hear in more detail what you have learned and how the training went as a whole. See you soon on Zoom and continue the discussion on these topics. 🙂 -Jenni-