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We offer a superior, evidence-based, and medically cutting-edge approach to the treatment of addiction. If you have been frustrated by repeated failures at recovery; unaware that there are proven anti-craving medications that can significantly improve treatment outcomes, give us a confidential call to learn more about the ARCA program.

Addictive disorders, which include alcoholism, are as ancient as human existence. The effects of intoxication and hallucinogenic experience have filled mankind with a mixture of fear and fascination. The ability to dissociate from the normal to a state of ‘being outside the body’ has irresistibly drawn human beings to experiment with a cacophony of foods and drugs to achieve a state that is hard to describe.

The futile attempt to achieve this mystical state has had devastating consequences for society. The term addiction, derived from the Latin root addicere meaning to adore or to surrender oneself to a master, has come into increasing popularity during the last decade.  No society or culture has been spared from the effects of addictions and alcoholism. Proscribing the use of alcohol or other psychoactive drugs has not had much impact on limiting use of such substances.

The inability of society to offer remedies for people afflicted with addictive disorders often was translated into condemnation and stigma, which even to this day continues to be practiced in some form or the other. The stigma associated with the disease and the desperate search for help by the victims of the disease created a situation that led well-meaning scientists, physicians, clergymen and yes, even quacks and charlatans to offer remedies and cures that did more harm than good; – rightly observed, no group of people has been more exploited than alcoholics.  

The desperation of the stigmatized victims and the compassion and charity of religion was a natural fit and, to this day, remains closely bonded. The creation of the self-help groups like the Oxford Movement, Washingtonian Movement and Alcoholics Anonymous were the outgrowth of the necessity to remain out of mainstream society and band together to provide a support structure free from the harmful intrusions of science and medicine. 

The same science that so completely failed the people afflicted by addictive diseases has uncovered the mysteries of the working of the brain and specifically the complex interactions of biochemicals involved in the feeling of reward and pleasure. Addiction is therefore, described as a ‘brain disease’ affecting the reward/pleasure system of the brain. It is possible to image the stimulation of specific regions of brain by various addictive substances and/or by the sights, sounds, smells of things and people associated by drug or alcohol use. We are also progressing well in our understanding of the role genetics and the environment in precipitating the disorder.

The advances in neurosciences have given us a new generation of medications that are devoid of the harmful long-term effects of the drugs used in the past. The two most critical lessons we have learned is that medications that do not involve the ‘brain’ are not very helpful and medications that produce a ‘high’ are not very useful for long-term therapy. The advances in behavioral sciences have allowed patients to remain in treatment for longer periods of time with significantly better outcomes. 

The treatment philosophy of ARCA is based in the following principles: 

For additional information please contact:
Percy Menzies, M. Pharm.
at Assisted Recovery Centers of America - St. Louis, MO
Lansdowne Medical Building,
6651 Chippewa, Suite # 224,
St. Louis, MO, 63109

Phone: 314-645-6840      
Fax: 314-645-6847
E-mail: contactus@arcamidwest.com