FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Ten Day Psychology Treatment Helps Heroin AddictsKick The Habit
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Anita Bonollo, Head Psychologist at Genesis Medical Centre, announced 20 October 2001 at the Ampersand Australia Clinical Conference, that she has developed a new ten day psychology treatment that helps recovering addicts to stay off heroin after they have undergone a medical opiate detoxification at the Centre. At the conference, Anita Bonollo reported on the results of her work, which show that, over a fourteen month period, 83% of the post-detoxification patients who completed the ten day program and then continued with regular counselling had not gone back to using heroin. During the course of the ten day treatment, patients attend on a daily basis and receive counselling and a form of hypnosis developed by Anita called solution oriented hypnotic analgesia. The treatment is suitable for patients who have undergone a medically supervised opiate detoxification such as those patients receiving Naltrexone, Buprenorphine or Methadone.
Solution Oriented Hypnotic Analgesia
Anita developed the new treatment after her observations that even after opiate detoxification patients reported that there were still very strong thoughts about wanting to use heroin. Anita said that, “There appeared to be an ongoing struggle within the person.” One patient referred to it as, “being mentally pulled apart by the conflict of needing to use.” This conflict was so strong that he felt very depressed and wanted to commit suicide rather than use heroin. Anita’s view, based on treating patients, is that during hypnosis the body can release its own chemicals that cause the physiology to go back to a normal state, without the withdrawal effects caused by a synthetic drug. Anita explained that there is a substantial body of research literature that suggests that under hypnosis the body releases a pattern of information substances (neuropeptides or stress hormones) that can affect the rest of the body at a cellular level. These information substances can relieve pain and affect wound healing and tissue repair mechanisms. Solution oriented hypnotic analgesia is a set of techniques based on this idea.
About Anita Bonollo and Genesis Medical Centre
Mrs. Anita Bonollo is Head Psychologist at Genesis Medical Centre. The Director of Genesis Medical Centre is Dr. Michael Kozminsky, who is a leading Australian authority on rapid opiate detoxification. Genesis Medical Centre is located at 390 Bay Street, North Brighton, Victoria 3186, Australia. Anita can be contacted by telephone on +61 3 9596 6422, or by fax on + 61 3 9596 1077.
Anita Bonollo on the Web
More information about today’s announcement, including published papers, is available from Anita Bonollo’s web page at and email on .