I APPRECIATE Colette Douglas-Home's analysis of alcoholism ("We must fight the plague of alcoholism in our society", The Herald, November 18).
Her description of alcoholism and women is devastating and her suggestion that £1.50 should be the minimum price-per-unit is sensible.
But I have to disagree with her belief that the solution can be found in science.
She writes: "To me it beggars belief science can't do more to help. Surely it is time for an internationally funded research project to combat an international plague? The object will be to find a chemical compound that will prevent our brains getting hooked."
In my view science has had a monopoly over the treatment of addiction and the result is treatments like methadone, and Librium for alcoholics.
Methadone can be useful in helping people detox but is highly addictive and ends up being subscribed to addicts indefinitely. The NHS seems to hand out methadone to all and sundry, without supporting therapy, and they call this "addiction treatment".
The drugs companies behind methadone issue international scientific reports which "prove" that those who use their drug are "stabilised" and doing well. These reports become the basis for government policy - and more than 90 per cent of Scotland's "addiction treatment" budget goes on this drug. The rehab clinics, on the other hand, have been starved of funds by the NHS and can't afford to pay for the kind of international "scientific" study that the drugs industries churn out.
The one study that does prove the effectiveness of rehab and "talking therapies" was Project Match, an eight-year multi-site project in the United States that cost $27 million. I wonder how many commissioners in the NHS even know about it? Even if the rehab sector were able to afford another big study, what would be the guarantee that anyone in government would take it seriously?
My experience in rehab suggests that the answer lies in the psychological causes of addiction: why is an addict self-medicating? What is the pain they are trying to dull? Do they have an eating disorder, anxiety or trauma? How can we work through their denial?
It is only by patiently working with their internal issues, which are often hidden, that we can help them to identify -and understand - the root of their problems.
Only at that point can we help them to find a way back to normality, a way that should result in a lifetime of abstinence.
Science certainly has a place in all this and we now understand how the brain gets addicted better than ever, but equal footing needs to be given to the soft skills like therapy and psychology - as well as the anonymous self-help groups which have helped millions of people recover from addiction at no cost to the taxpayer.
Rupert Wolfe Murray,
Castle Craig Hospital,
Blyth Bridge,
West Lothian.
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