In the United States, substance abuse costs over one half-trillion dollars annually. Treatment for substance abuse can lower these costs. Studies show that drug addiction treatment can reduce associated health and social costs by far more than expensive alternatives, such as incarceration of addicted persons. Drug addiction treatment reduces drug use and its associated health and social costs. According to several conservative estimates, every one dollar invested in addiction treatment programs yields a return of between four and seven dollars in reduced crime, criminal justice costs and theft related to drugs. When bookkeepers take into account the savings related to health, total savings can exceed costs by a ratio of 12 to 1. Major savings to the individual and to society also stem from fewer interpersonal conflicts, greater workplace productivity and fewer accidents related to drugs, including overdoses and deaths.

Older Adult Addiction Treatments

The aging of baby boomers results in a higher number of elderly people and aging adults. Older adults with a history of lifetime drug use, plus different cultural norms and general attitudes about drug use, and increases in the availability of psychotherapeutic medications, may cause a higher number of older adults with substance use problems. Although no drug treatment programs exclusively target older adults, research to date indicates that current addiction treatment programs can be as effective for older adults as for younger adults. However, substance abuse problems in older adults often go unrecognized and therefore untreated.

Gastric Bypass

Gastric bypass procedures are any of a group of similar operations used to treat morbid obesity—the severe accumulation of excess weight as fatty tissue—and the health problems it causes. Bariatric surgery is the term encompassing all of the surgical treatments for morbid obesity, not just gastric bypasses, which make up only one class of such operations. A gastric bypass first divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger, lower remnant pouch and then re-arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches to stay connected to it. Surgeons have developed several different ways to reconnect the intestine, thus leading to several different bypass names. Any bypass leads to a marked reduction in the functional volume of the stomach, accompanied by an altered physiological and psychological response to food. The resulting weight loss, typically dramatic, markedly reduces comorbidities. The long-term mortality rate of gastric bypass patients has reduction of up to 40 percent. The gastric bypass, in its various forms, accounts for a large majority of the bariatric surgical procedures performed. An increasing number of these operations are by limited access techniques, termed laparoscopy. Laparoscopic surgery uses several small incisions, or ports, one of which conveys a surgical telescope connected to a video camera, and others permit access of specialized operating instruments. The surgeon actually views his operation on a video screen. The method is limited access surgery, reflecting both the limitation on handling and feeling tissues, and also the limited resolution and two-dimensionality of the video image. With experience, a skilled laparoscopic surgeon can perform most procedures as expeditiously as with an open incision—with the option of using an incision should the need arise. The gastric bypass reduces the size of the stomach by well over 90 percent. A normal stomach can stretch, sometimes to over 1000 ml, while the pouch of the gastric bypass may be 15 ml in size. The gastric bypass pouch is formed from the part of the stomach, which is least susceptible to stretching. That, and its small original size, prevents any significant long-term change in pouch volume. What does change, over time, is the size of the connection between stomach and bowel, and the ability of the small bowel to hold a greater volume of food. Over time, the functional capacity of the pouch increases, and by that time, weight loss has occurred, and the increased capacity serves to allow maintenance of a lower body weight. When the patient ingests just a small amount of food, the first response is a stretching of the wall of the stomach pouch, stimulating nerves, which tell the brain that the stomach is full. The patient feels a sensation of fullness, as if they had just eaten a large meal—but with just a thumbful of food.

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Melanoma

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes, which present in skin but also in the bowel and the eyes. It is one of the more rare types of skin cancer, but causes the majority of skin cancer-related deaths. Malignant melanoma is a serious type of skin cancer. Uncontrolled growth of pigment cells, called melanocytes cause cancer. Despite many years of intensive laboratory and clinical research, the sole effective cure for melanoma is surgical resection of the primary tumor before it achieves a Breslow thickness greater than 1mm. Each year doctors diagnose around 160,000 new cases of melanoma and it presents more frequently in males and Caucasians. It is more common in Caucasian populations living in sunny climates than other groups. According to a WHO report, about 48,000 melanoma-related deaths occur worldwide per annum.