TREAT HABIT LIKE A BRAIN ILLNESS

Drug addiction should be treated as a chronic relapsing disease like
asthma or arthritis, according to a doctor who works in drug treatment
at a major Sydney teaching hospital.

``Treating addiction is not like fixing a ruptured appendix or a
broken bone - one operation will never cure it,'' Dr Jon Currie told
the Drugs Summit at the NSW Parliament.

Dr Currie said drug addiction was regarded as a disease of the brain
at Westmead Hospital where he worked as a staff specialist in drug and
alcohol treatment.

``The principles for treating drug addiction are the same as those for
treating other chronic relapsing diseases,'' Dr Currie told the summit.

``Nobody has any trouble with the treatment of asthma, arthritis,
diabetes, hypertension. You would expect to have relapses and remissions.

``For God's sake, the rates of compliance with treatment for diabetes
is less than 50 per cent, for hypertension less than 60 per cent, for
asthma less than 80 per cent compliance.

``Do we say the treatments are a failure, do we say you shouldn't
treat? No. This is simply the way a relapsing disease works.''