As part of the Behavioral Medicine, a Zhejiang Provincial Key Discipline, the Department of Addictive Behaviors started in November 2014, with its origin as the Department of Substance Abuse. It provides 24-hour general and emergency outpatient services through a combined approach of medication and psychotherapy to provide high-quality services for patients with substance abuse and behavioral additions.
The behavioral medicine department draws on the best of others, to optimize its medical environment, integrate advanced treatment methods at home and abroad, and use the trinity model of "biological (medication, physical therapy including TMS & TDC), psychological (family and cognitive therapy), and social". This model was built on the foundation of medication treatment, involving individual psychotherapy and group psychotherapy featuring psychological counseling, motivational interviews, cognitive therapy, behavior modification, and systematic family therapy, etc., making it possible for the department to provide alcohol and drug addictive patients with professional, whole-course, and high-level technical services. Patients population served are mainly those with substance-related mental disorders including alcohol and drug abuse, and other behavioral addictions including pathological gambling, sex addiction, and impulse control spectrum disorders. For patients that are admitted in their acute stage of alcohol dependence, the team follows strictly the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test to evaluate patients’ level of dependence. Once admitted, patients are evaluated daily on their severity of withdrawal syndrome with the Clinic Institute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome Scale. The departments abides by the Chinese Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Alcohol-Related Mental Disorders and provides intensive care and supportive symptomatic treatments. Its rate of alleviation for severe withdrawal syndrome (delirium tremens) represents the highest level in the local area. For alcohol relapse prevention, the department has achieved all around success through medication, physical, psychological and other approaches.
