NEWSWEEK: There’s a Growing Rivalry Between Old-Guard Rehab Centers and the New Class of Superluxury Centers, Newsweek Reports

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ — Checking into rehab has been a fixture of our culture since as far back as 1983. But since that time, residential treatment programs for the middle and upper classes have proliferated across both the geographic and the therapeutic maps. Newsweek reports that there is now a growing rivalry between old-guard institutions like the Betty Ford Center and the new class of superluxury rehab centers in ocean-view mansions that supplement the traditional 12-step approach with acupuncture, massage and equine therapy.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070211/NYSU012 )

To John Schwarzlose, president and CEO of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., the blurring of lines between “spa” and “treatment center” is disheartening. “They say, ‘We have 500-count sheets.’ It trivializes what we do,” he tells Newsweek Senior Editor Jerry Adler in the February 19 issue (on newsstands Monday, February 12). Dr. Mark Willenbring of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism agrees that gourmet chefs and riding stables run counter to the spirit of treatment. “The best thing for you in rehab,” he says, “is to sit next to a guy from skid row and realize, you’re just as much an alcoholic as he is. Learning humility is part of the recovery process.” But Richard Rogg, founder and CEO of Promises Residential Center in Malibu says, “People feel more supported in an environment that mimics their real life.” He won’t name clients, but among those who reportedly sought serenity on its lush grounds were Ben Affleck, Kelly Osbourne and Diana Ross.

With a few exceptions, most residential programs run along broadly similar lines and the typical stay is a month. The reigning paradigm is the 12-step program pioneered by the Hazelden Foundation in the 1960s. But Newsweek reports that the real breakthrough, the paradigm shift, will come when safe, reliable drug treatments are available for addiction. The time is coming — perhaps even within the decade — when doctors will treat alcoholism with a pill. As they improve their understanding of the biochemistry of addiction, researchers will find new ways to interrupt the neurological sequence that begins with pulling the tab on a can of beer and ends with sobbing on the phone to someone you dated twice in 1987.

It will be a paradigm shift as profound as the one wrought by Prozac in the treatment of depression, says Dr. Willenbring. “There are probably 10 new drugs in development for alcoholism,” he says, “and some are very exciting.” One, Topamax, an existing epilepsy drug (which means it has a leg up on safety testing), affects the balance between two brain chemicals, glutamate and GABA, and may reduce cravings in addicts. Willenbring cautions, though, that even the most effective drugs will undoubtedly have to be combined with some form of behavioral support.

(Read story at http://www.newsweek.com/)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17083397/site/newsweek/

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