• Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction in Drug Rehab

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Inpatient or residential drug rehab programs can be stressful for residents on several different levels. Residents may experience stress as a symptom of withdrawal. Some treatment sessions will likely activate emotions and trigger stress. For many patients, pre-existing stress played a major role in the development of their addiction. An effective approach to stress management would be expected to help many patients in their addiction recovery and increase retention in residential treatment facilities. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a relatively new approach to stress management in the drug rehab environment. Marcus et. al. compared mindfulness-based stress reduction to treatment as usual for reducing stress and increasing retention in a residential facility for substance use ...
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  • Mental Health Among Drug Court Participants in Drug Treatment

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Although drug courts successfully reduce rates of recidivism for participants, research indicates that there is a need to develop mental health screenings to detect co-occurring mental health issues during associated drug treatment.   What is a Drug Court? Drug courts are specialized court dockets that bring together judiciary, prosecution, defense, probation, law enforcement, mental health, social service, and drug treatment communities to provide drug treatment for non-violent drug offenders. Through judicial supervision, drug testing, sanctions, and drug treatment (typically lasting a year), drug courts aim to provide rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. The first drug court was formed in Miami-Dade County, Florida in 1989. There are currently more than 2,1...
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  • Pregnancy and Motivation for Drug Treatment

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Using drugs during pregnancy creates multiple risks for the mother as well as the baby. Drug use during pregnancy may lead to miscarriage or severe developmental abnormalities for the child. Yet little research has examined the motivation for drug treatment among pregnant women. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University hypothesized that pregnant drug-using women would be more likely than non-pregnant drug-using women to have higher motivation for addiction treatment (Mitchell, Severtson & Latimer, 2008). The researchers analyzed data collected from 149 drug-using women between 2000 and 2007; 49 of the drug-using women were pregnant and 100 were non-pregnant. The study found that pregnant women were more than four times as likely as non-pregnant women to express greater motivation ...
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  • Antisocial Personality Disorder in Drug Treatment for Cannabis & Cocaine

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Many studies present evidence that antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is highly associated with substance use disorders (SUD). The DSM-IV defines ASPD as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” Characteristics of individuals with ASPD may include persistent lying, superficial charm, lack of remorse, impulsivity, poor behavioral controls, and disregard for social norms and rules. Mariani et. al. examined the rates of different antisocial syndromes among cocaine-dependent and cannabis-dependent individuals seeking drug treatment (2008). Conduct Disorder A true diagnosis of ASPD must include the childhood component of antisocial behavior known as conduct disorder (CD). C...
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  • Will an Anti-cocaine Vaccine Improve Drug Treatment?

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    A clinical trial supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) marks the first successful, placebo-controlled demonstration of a vaccine against illicit drug addiction. The anti-cocaine vaccine causes the immune system to produces antibodies that attach to cocaine molecules, preventing them from entering the brain. Thus, the vaccine blocks the drug’s effect.   The Premise of The Anti-cocaine Vaccine Study The study followed 115 patients who received either the anti-cocaine vaccine or a placebo. Participants in both groups received 5 vaccinations over 12 weeks and were followed for an additional 12 weeks. All participants participated in drug treatment which consisted of weekly relapse prevention sessions with a trained substance abuse counselor. They also had their ...
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  • Increasing Treatment Readiness for Drug Treatment

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Addiction treatment readiness has been shown to predict enrollment and success in drug treatment programs. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health asked, “Does taking steps to control one’s drug use predict entry into treatment?” The researchers set out to examine the association between treatment readiness (defined as engaging in activities to control one’s drug use) and enrolling in a drug treatment program. They examined data collected in 585 face-to-face interviews between 2004 and 2007. They concluded that taking steps to control drug use was associated with entering treatment at follow-up interviews. Steps to control drug use might include setting limits on use, avoiding the purchase of drugs, and avoiding drug-related people and places. Further, the like...
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  • What is Contingency Management in Drug Treatment?

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    In scientific research, potentially fuzzy concepts are “operationalized” to make them measurable. For example, the fuzzy concept of “length” must be defined in terms of the measurement operations used to obtain length (contingency management in drug treatment).   Meanings of Contingency Management in Drug Treatment The term “contingency management” may have different meanings, depending on how this approach to drug treatment is operationalized in a particular study. This article aims to help the reader understand what subjects in a contingency management drug treatment program might experience. The reader may then have a better sense of whether contingency management would be useful in his or her own addiction treatment or drug rehab program. Although scientists will be intere...
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  • Cannabis Use May Reinstate Alcohol-Seeking Behavior in Recovery

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    What are the effects of cannabis on alcohol recovery? Many alcohol dependent individuals relapse after a period of abstinence in alcohol recovery. Researchers have used the reinstatement paradigm as an animal model of relapse. Animals are exposed to certain stimuli to test whether they reinstate previously extinguished responses, such as alcohol-seeking behavior. Lab rats, for example, will drink beer to the point of having withdrawal symptoms upon termination. Recent studies have found that synthetic cannabinoids (but not delta-9-THC, the main psychoactive constituent in marijuana) can reinstate previously extinguished drug-seeking behavior in lab rats (for cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine). Since cannabis is often used with alcohol in social settings, a team of researchers in Aust...
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  • Impact of marijuana use on alcohol treatment for young adults?

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Individualized treatment plans can help young adults see how marijuana use impacts the outcome of their alcohol treatment. Rates of alcohol and marijuana use are highest among young adults, and high rates of marijuana and alcohol use are seen in young adult patients admitted to emergency departments. Hospital admission provides an opportunity for alcohol treatment through brief motivational interventions, and previous research suggests that such interventions demonstrate positive outcomes. Researchers at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University examined how reported marijuana use affected response to brief motivational interviewing for alcohol treatment among young adults treated in an emergency department (Magill et. al., 2009). Participants were 215 young...
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  • Predictors of drug addiction among individuals in alcohol rehab

    Posted on July 23, 2013
    Through the use of evidence-based addiction treatment, predictors of drug addiction treatment can be identified. Previous research shows that alcohol-dependent individuals have an increased risk of developing dependence on illicit drugs and prescription drugs. For instance, the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey of 42,862 households in the United States found that individuals with lifetime alcohol use disorders were 9 to 17 times more likely to meet the criteria for a lifetime substance abuse disorder. Studies suggest that approximately half of alcohol-dependent individuals also have substance use disorders. This tends to complicate alcohol rehab and recovery. Thus, it is important to identify predictors of drug addiction among individuals in alcohol rehab so that com...
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