As a newer iteration of RP, Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) has a less extensive research base, though it has been tested in samples with a range of SUDs (e.g., Bowen et al., 2009; Bowen et al., 2014; Witkiewitz et al., 2014). Harm reduction may also be well-suited for people with high-risk drug use and severe, treatment-resistant SUDs (Finney & Moos, 2006; Ivsins, Pauly, Brown, & Evans, 2019). These individuals are considered good candidates for harm reduction interventions because of the severity of substance-related negative consequences, and thus the urgency of reducing these harms. Indeed, this argument has been central to advocacy around harm reduction interventions for people who inject drugs, such as SSPs and safe injection facilities (Barry et al., 2019; Kulikowski & Linder, 2018).
Another technique is that the road to abstinence is broken down to smaller achievable targets so that client can easily master the task enhancing self-efficacy. Also, therapists can provide positive feedback of achievements that the client has been able to make in other facets of life6. Interpersonal relationships and support systems are highly influenced by intrapersonal processes such as emotion, coping, and expectancies18.
Relapse Prevention in other areas
Unfortunately, few quantitative, survey-based studies have included substance use during treatment as a potential reason for treatment noncompletion, representing a significant gap in this body of literature (for a review, see Brorson, Ajo Arnevik, Rand-Hendriksen, & Duckert, 2013). Additionally, no studies identified in this review compared reasons for not completing treatment between abstinence-focused and nonabstinence treatment. Future research should assess the dynamic nature of drinking goal in predicting treatment outcomes. Clinicians have long recognized that client’s attitudes and goals towards drinking change throughout the course of treatment. The dynamic nature of drinking goal may be an important clinical variable in its own right (Hodgins, Leigh, Milne, & Gerrish, 1997). The present study was limited to the assessment of drinking goal at the onset of treatment and future studies examining drinking goals over the course of treatment seem warranted.
Inaction has typically been interpreted as the acceptance of substance cues which can be described as “letting go” and not acting on an urge. Knowing that can be disheartening, but it can also cause you to relapse out of the belief that relapse is inevitable. Still, you should also realize that relapse isn’t guaranteed, especially if you stay vigilant in managing your continued recovery. Nevertheless, 40 to 60% of people who once were addicted to a substance and achieved sobriety relapse at some point, based on estimates from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). I completely understand the desire for a single figure that expresses the odds of success.
Cognitive Behavioral Treatments for Substance Use Disorders
This standard persisted in SUD treatment even as strong evidence emerged that a minority of individuals who receive 12-Step treatment achieve and maintain long-term abstinence (e.g., Project MATCH Research Group, 1998). As a data check, all outcomes presented in the primary COMBINE manuscript were replicated prior to any model testing for this study. Additionally, drinking goal was initially analyzed as a five-level variable keeping all possible self-report responses separate. Visual inspection of these results supported our classification system abstinence violation effect definition (i.e., controlled drinking, conditional abstinence, and complete abstinence) in that the two possible responses for both controlled drinking and conditional abstinence clustered together across outcomes. Since drinking goal is a three-level variable, following the omnibus test, planned analyses were conducted to test differences between the three drinking goal groups for effects observed on all outcome variables. In a meta-analysis by Carroll, more than 24 RCT’s have been evaluated for the effectiveness of RP on substance use outcomes.
- For example, despite being widely cited as a primary rationale for nonabstinence treatment, the extent to which offering nonabstinence options increases treatment utilization (or retention) is unknown.
- Relapse Prevention (RP) is another well-studied model used in both AUD and DUD treatment (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985).
- ” I refer to this as a case of the “screw-it’s” (although harsher language is not uncommon!); a sense of giving up.