It appears that stopping drugs with the ‘cold turkey’ method might actually result in a mental health decline, according to an animal model of morphine addiction. Georgetown University Medical Center researchers say their observations suggest that managing morphine withdrawal, rather than stopping abruptly, could promote a healthier mental state in former addicts.

“Over time, drug-abusing individuals often develop mental disorders,” says Italo Mocchetti, PhD, a professor of neuroscience. “It’s been thought that drug abuse itself contributes to mental decline, but our findings suggest that ‘quitting cold turkey’ can also lead to damage.”

During this study, Mocchetti and his research team treated the animals with morphine, or allowed them to undergo withdrawal by stopping the treatment. Then, they measured pro-inflammatory cytokines, which can promote damage and cell death, and the protein CCL5, which has various protective effects in the brain.

“Interestingly, we found that treating the addicted animals with morphine both increased the protective CCL5 protein while decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines, suggesting a beneficial effect,” Mocchetti explains. The animals that weren’t treated during withdrawal had the opposite results, a decrease in CCL5 and an increase in levels of the damage causing cytokines.

“From these findings, it appears that morphine withdrawal may be a causative factor that leads to mental decline, presenting an important avenue for research in how we can better help people who are trying to quit using drugs,” concludes Mocchetti.

Usually, the first phase in drug treatment is a medically supervised detox process. A treatment plan is then developed based on a comprehensive analysis of the individual patient’s specific needs.

According to most addiction and rehabilitation websites, drugs like alcohol, opiates and tranquilizers can produce significant physical withdrawal symptoms. Other drugs, like cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy, produce few physical withdrawal symptoms. Instead, they produce more emotional withdrawal instead.

The results of this study were published in the November 2013 issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity and presented at Neuroscience 2013.