LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Jan 14, 2015) - According to a new report published by Las Vegas-based Innovative Detox, significant number of people addicted to either alcohol or prescription opiate painkillers have, at some time in their lives, suffered a mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury, known to doctors as TBI.

It takes remarkably little to cause a mild TBI. For instance, Innovative Detox's report found that an auto collision that occurs while going just 9 mph can be enough to trigger a mild TBI. Many people could have a history of a TBI and never realize it, which helps explain why so many addicts also have a history of traumatic brain injury.

One of the most common and debilitating effects of TBI is PTSD -- post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is an affliction suffered by combat veterans who've been too close to an explosion, or by people who've been assaulted, taken a bad fall or who've been in an accident. State-of-the-art computerized 3-D brain scans dramatically illustrate the turmoil that goes on inside an injured brain, turmoil which can manifest itself as the kinds of behaviors found among PTSD victims.

"Our report found that people with PTSD too often wind up becoming addicted to alcohol or prescription opiate painkillers - often through an unconscious process called self-medication," according to Innovative Detox CEO Dr. Lucas Furst. "Without quite realizing what they are really doing, PTSD sufferers are trying to find some way of quieting the turmoil going on in their brains.

"Whether they use alcohol or prescription painkillers, they find that over time, it takes more of the substance to calm their brains and give them at least momentary peace," Dr. Furst explained. "This is what leads them to addiction."

While research is still ongoing to determine whether the injury causes the addiction, or the addiction led to the injury, the report notes that at least some people who become addicted while trying to self-medicate a mild traumatic brain injury -- an injury they don't even know they have -- would find it harder to remain sober because of that injury.

"Innovative Detox views addiction as a medical issue, one that can be effectively treated medically," Dr. Furst noted. "We first detox individuals while under anesthesia -- they go through withdrawal while asleep, sparing themselves the suffering that usually accompanies withdrawal. Then, along with medical and psychological support treatments, we provide our formerly-addicted patients a non-addictive prescription medicine that has been cleared by the FDA to prevent re-addiction even while it blunts the cravings that those in recovery experience."

About Innovative Detox
Las Vegas-based Innovative Detox was created by four medical professionals to offer people addicted to alcohol or prescription painkillers a medically-sound alternative to conventional drug rehab and alcohol addiction programs, which have a 75 percent failure rate, allowing clients to medically overcome their addictions and begin their second chance at life, a life free from addiction. While there are limited risks to any procedure involving anesthesia, Innovative Detox's patent-pending ID Method -- based around the exclusive Beckett Protocol is medically-safe when administered by a board-certified anesthesiologist.