Social Workers
Mindfulness-based treatment of addiction: current state of the field
1.00 - CE credit hours training
$6.00 - Cost of course
This page contains important information about the course, including training details, a comprehensive course description, learning objectives, and source references. We encourage you to review each section to gain a clear understanding of the course content, educational goals, and supporting materials before beginning your training and taking the POST TEST below.
Target audience and instructional level of this course: foundational
There is no known conflict of interest or commercial support related to this CE program.
This credit course is designed for social workers, psychologists, counselors, therapists, nurses and other health care professionals, and is at the intermediate instructional level.
The first author (ELG) developed the Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) intervention, and has received income from the MORE treatment manual (Garland, 2013) and therapist trainings.
Contemporary advances in addiction neuroscience have paralleled increasing interest in the ancient mental training practice of mindfulness meditation as a potential therapy for addiction. In the past decade, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been studied as a treatment for an array addictive behaviors, including drinking, smoking, opioid misuse, and use of illicit substances like cocaine and heroin. This article reviews current research evaluating MBIs as a treatment for addiction, with a focus on findings pertaining to clinical outcomes and biobehavioral mechanisms. Studies indicate that MBIs reduce substance misuse and craving by modulating cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological processes integral to self-regulation and reward processing. This integrative review provides the basis for manifold recommendations regarding the next wave of research needed to firmly establish the efficacy of MBIs and elucidate the mechanistic pathways by which these therapies ameliorate addiction. Issues pertaining to MBI treatment optimization and sequencing, dissemination and implementation, dose-response relationships, and research rigor and reproducibility are discussed.
The first author (ELG) developed the Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) intervention, and has received income from the MORE treatment manual (Garland, 2013) and therapist trainings.
Contemporary advances in addiction neuroscience have paralleled increasing interest in the ancient mental training practice of mindfulness meditation as a potential therapy for addiction. In the past decade, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been studied as a treatment for an array addictive behaviors, including drinking, smoking, opioid misuse, and use of illicit substances like cocaine and heroin. This article reviews current research evaluating MBIs as a treatment for addiction, with a focus on findings pertaining to clinical outcomes and biobehavioral mechanisms. Studies indicate that MBIs reduce substance misuse and craving by modulating cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological processes integral to self-regulation and reward processing. This integrative review provides the basis for manifold recommendations regarding the next wave of research needed to firmly establish the efficacy of MBIs and elucidate the mechanistic pathways by which these therapies ameliorate addiction. Issues pertaining to MBI treatment optimization and sequencing, dissemination and implementation, dose-response relationships, and research rigor and reproducibility are discussed.
- describe the potential neurocognitive processes that become dysregulated due to addiction and may be improved through MBIs
- outline the current state of research regarding clinical outcomes of mindfulness-based treatment for addiction
- compile a list of recommendations for future research related to mindfulness-based treatment for addiction
ECRI-Penn Evidence-based Practice Center Plymouth Meeting, PA, and Philadelphia, PA
Investigators: Jonathan R. Treadwell, Ph.D.a Amy Y. Tsou, M.D.a Benjamin Rouse, M.S.a Ilya Ivlev, M.D., Ph.D.a Julie Fricke, Ph.D.b Dawn Buse, Ph.D.c Scott W. Powers, Ph.D.d,e,f Mia Minen, M.D.g Christina L. Szperka, M.D., M.S.C.E.h Nikhil K. Mull, M.D.b,i
ECRI, Plymouth Meeting, PA
Penn Medicine Center for Evidence-based Practice, Philadelphia, PA
Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY
Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH
Headache Center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH
Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH
New York University Departments of Neurology and Population Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia & Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA