Drug addiction therapy costly

Drug addiction therapy costly

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Therapy for drug addicts is a complicated process which takes a
long time and costs a lot of money with no guarantee that the
recovering addicts will be able to stay off drugs, experts say.

A patient needs to undergo a rapid detoxification process,
which lasts between four and six hours, and then take pure opiate
antagonist pills for the whole year, according to Rinaldi Nizar
of the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta.

Rinaldi told a seminar here last week said that a patient
would have to pay up to Rp 5 million for the detoxification
process, while the pills, one of which should be taken each day,
cost Rp 22,000 each.

Charles E. Damping, a psychiatrist from the University of
Indonesia (UI), added that weekly counseling was also required.

"The doctor's counseling fee ranges from Rp 35,000 to Rp
50,000 every week," he said.

While the experts differed about the success rate of the
therapy, they all agreed that there is a high dropout rate from
the therapy process.

Sunarno of the Graha Medika hospital in West Jakarta said that
70 percent of drug addicts quit the therapy before the process is
completed.

Charles estimated that half of his patients completed the
entire therapy process.

Jesse A. Montja, head of the antidrug working group at the
national education ministry, said that no comprehensive studies
had been conducted in Indonesia on the effectiveness of drug
therapy, but nearly all rehabilitation centers had problems with
the dropout rate.

"Relapse is a major problem in all rehabilitation centers in
Indonesia," he explained.

Charles said that whether a patient would complete the therapy
depended on his environment. Therefore, the family had an
important role to play in controlling and motivating recovering
addicts.

"The fact that is quite easy to get drugs here also plays a
major (negative) role in the success of therapy," he said.

While there is no accurate data about drug addiction in the
country, drug activist Henry Yosodiningrat estimated that the
number could reach four million people.

Most of them are young people, including students, in urban
areas.