Mental health treatment often focuses on a person’s thoughts, emotions and behaviors. For people with a co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD) or alcohol use disorder (AUD), integrated behavioral health care also helps you understand why you’ve used alcohol or drugs to cope, transitioning you toward recovery. However, a crucial part of the recovery process must include integrated medical care to heal the body as well.

Integrated medical care means your physical health is treated alongside your mental health and any co-occurring substance use. You’ll find a team of on-site doctors and nurses at our Deerfield Beach campus to treat health issues that frequently occur with mental health conditions and substance use.

Treating Medical Issues

If you’re stopping alcohol or drugs, withdrawal can create problems and risks for your body. Illnesses that involve life-threatening complications can develop. These health conditions can dramatically affect your recovery. Our team of doctors at Restore provides a continuous program that treats you with the health care you need during your progress towards recovery.

Why Is Medical Care Important?

Our doctors treat mental health conditions, the substance use issues that often accompany them and related physical health concerns. While it’s true your brain and your mental health have a serious impact on these disorders, you shouldn’t neglect your overall health care. You must treat your general health needs simultaneously with your mental health and any substance use. Health care problems can complicate the diagnosis of mental health issues. On the other hand, symptoms linked to mental health issues create problems that health care professionals need to consider when making a strong baseline for your recovery. (Creating a baseline involves recognizing where you are starting from in your journey toward recovery.)

The medical care provided by the doctors and nurses at Restore addresses health care problems linked to substance use and to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. Providing medical care for mental health issues reduces your need for pain medications that may exacerbate your disorder. People who use heroin and those with an AUD frequently have damaged stomach linings.

When you have a substance use disorder, it changes your brain physically and chemically. When you’re dependent on these external chemicals, stopping suddenly can cause intense pain and withdrawal. Withdrawal not only affects your brain but the rest of your body as well. Other organs struggle with the limited access to the chemicals they’ve depended upon. The effect on your overall health can be dramatic.

The doctors and nurses at Restore can create a complete treatment plan for managing pain and move you away from seeking a form of relief that only deepens substance use.

Medical Complications of SUD and AUD

When you have a SUD or an AUD, illnesses and complications are numerous. These disorders affect health, interfering with your body’s ability to heal and function normally. Complications can include:

• Damage to the heart such as irregular heart rhythms, cardiac arrest and heart failure because of the toxicity of drug use
• Using alcohol, steroids, heroin or inhalants can seriously damage the liver
• Damage to the kidneys from using PCP, heroin, inhalants and other drugs
• Stomach problems including abdominal pain, reflux or severe constipation from using cocaine, alcohol, LSD or khat
• Tobacco use can cause cancers of the mouth, throat, stomach and lungs

If you have a SUD or an AUD, you may have various stages of these medical conditions. However, Restore’s team of doctors and nurses will help you manage them if they occur.

Medical Conditions Linked to Substance Use

In a large study done in 2017, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and Kaiser Permanente compared the health care records of patients in Northern California. They looked at patients with SUDs and matched patients without a substance use disorder. Their findings showed a strong association between substance use disorders and 19 major medical illnesses, including:

• Cardiovascular diseases
• Cancers, including lung cancer
• Injuries
• Stroke
• Cirrhosis
• Arthritis
• Chronic pain
• Hepatitis C
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Opioid-related overdoses
• Respiratory deficits

Overprescription and Medical Complications

Many people seen by the health care professionals at Restore live with severe depression or anxiety, and some also have a SUD or an AUD. Underlying health complications can be why these people face mental health issues. To deal with pain, many people rely on painkillers such as opioids, or those struggling with depression and a lack of energy use drugs to feel “normal.”

Often these individuals turn to their family doctors for these medical needs before coming to Restore for mental health care. This creates a lack of cohesive care. It’s easy to overprescribe medications that can limit recovery healing when the right hand is unsure what the left hand is doing. When one location like Restore manages all your health care needs, you eliminate this risk. Instead, you have a team of doctors and nurses working on your mental health, substance use and physical health needs at the same time.

A Strong Baseline Enhances Chances of Success During Recovery

Untreated physical health problems and substance use can create long-term effects that limit a successful recovery. By the same token, if you have health care problems and seek care for them without addressing what might be causing them, such as an AUD or a SUD, you again limit your chances of successful recovery. This is where integrated medical care makes an enormous difference. When you enter the treatment program at Restore, you create a strong baseline, free from other health issues, that provides you with your best chance at long-term success.

Our medical integration services address the health issues that limit this long-term success. First, we treat your existing and underlying health care problems. Then we create a customized treatment plan that addresses your recovery’s mental and physical needs.

Our integrated medical care model ensures you or your loved one will receive medical care alongside treatment for mental health conditions and co-occurring substance use. Our compassionate team is available 24/7 at our Deerfield Beach campus to help you begin your journey to recovery. Call us at (877) 810-2074 or contact us online.