Heliopolis Library will organize a seminar next Saturday titled “Culture of Home Addiction Treatment,” with Dr. Ramez Taha, Senior Consultant of Psychiatry and Addiction Treatment, lecturing at 5 PM.

During the seminar, Dr. Ramez Taha will sound the alarm following the Ministry of Health’s announcement last month about the closure of 25 unlicensed addiction treatment centers and clinics, mostly run by former addicts, using unscientific methods such as confinement in ill-equipped rooms and severe beatings, as well as promoting myths like energy healing, gemstones, tarot, herbs, “spell breaking,” and “bringing back a lover.”

Dr. Ramez will call for establishing an authority to support psychiatry and addiction treatment to raise awareness about the importance of this specialty and counteract campaigns that distort and scare people away from psychiatric treatment and psychiatric medications, which leads some patients to refuse treatment or resort to unscientific alternatives.

He will also introduce the concept of home addiction treatment for moderate cases using the “Matrix Model,” a therapeutic program proven successful in the USA for treating drug addictions such as cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as behavioral addictions like food addiction, smoking, shopping, cosmetic surgeries, pornography, video games, and gambling.

Dr. Taha emphasized that this approach requires several conditions, including:

• The patient’s willingness and motivation for treatment.
• No severe psychiatric disorders accompanying addiction (Dual Diagnosis).
• Family support and care.
• No long-term or heavy drug use.
• No mixing of multiple dangerous drugs.
• The patient’s readiness to adhere to medication treatment under medical supervision.

He stressed the importance of psychiatric medications in treating some cases, confirming that recent research has proven their effectiveness, and they should be used in specific doses under medical supervision and gradually withdrawn after patient improvement.

He explained that fear and rejection of psychiatric medications pose significant risks and may lead, in severe psychotic cases, to suicide or committing crimes under hallucinations and delusions.

The seminar is part of Heliopolis Library’s efforts to enhance health and cultural awareness in the community by discussing issues that directly affect citizens’ lives.