Reduce Addictions Relapse in Minority Women with Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“By being mindful the individual will be able to see that these cravings appear in the mind and then disappear. They are like clouds passing through the sky. Sometimes just acknowledging the craving will be enough to make it disappear.“ – Addiction Rehab
Substance abuse is a major health and social problem. There are estimated 22.2 million people in the U.S. with substance dependence. It is estimated that worldwide there are nearly ¼ million deaths yearly as a result of illicit drug use which includes unintentional overdoses, suicides, HIV and AIDS, and trauma. In the U.S. about 17 million people abuse alcohol. Drunk driving fatalities accounted for over 10,000 deaths annually Obviously there is a need to find effective methods to prevent and treat substance abuse. There are a number of programs that are successful at stopping the drug abuse, including the classic 12-step program emblematic of Alcoholics Anonymous. Unfortunately, the majority of drug and/or alcohol abusers relapse and return to substance abuse. Hence, it is important to find an effective method to prevent these relapses.
Mindfulness practices have been shown to improve recovery from various addictions. Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) has been developed to specifically assist in relapse prevention and has been shown to be effective. “MBRP integrates mindfulness practices with cognitive-behavioral Relapse Prevention therapy and aims to help participants increase awareness and acceptance of difficult thoughts, feelings, and sensations to create changes in patterns of reactive behavior that commonly lead to relapse. Mindfulness training in MBRP provides clients with a new way of processing situational cues and monitoring internal reactions to contingencies, and this awareness supports proactive behavioral choices in the face of high-risk relapse situation.” – Grow et al. 2015
In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness-based relapse prevention with racial and ethnic minority women.” See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5441877/, Witkiewitz and colleagues recruited adult women in a residential substance abuse treatment facility for criminal offenders. All of the women were abstinent at the time of treatment. Substance abuse included “methamphetamines (15%), alcohol (12%), heroin (11%), marijuana (10%), crack cocaine (9%), and hallucinogens (2%).” The women were randomly assigned to receive twice weekly 50-minute sessions over 8 weeks of either standard relapse prevention treatment or Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention (MBRP). They were measured before treatment and 6 months later for drug use and addiction severity.
They compared the effectiveness of standard relapse prevention treatment to Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) and compared minority women to non-hispanic white women. They found that (MBRP) produced significantly better relapse prevention for the minority women including less drug use and addiction severity. In fact, the minority women treated with (MBRP) had no drug use at all in the 6 months following treatment.
These are interesting results that (MBRP) is effective in preventing relapse but also that it is most effective for minority women. The improved addiction severity scores were due primarily to fewer health problems in the minority women. It is not known exactly why (MBRP) is more effective for minority women in producing improved abstinence and better general health. Nevertheless, the study does demonstrate that (MBRP) is an effective treatment preventing relapse after addiction recovery especially with minority women.
So, reduce addictions relapse in minority women with mindfulness.
“the classical Buddhist meditation literature and recent scientific findings appear to agree that when correctly practised and administered, mindfulness meditation is a safe, non-invasive, and cost-effective tool for treating behavioral addictions and for improving psychological health more generally.” – Mark Griffiths
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Witkiewitz, K., Greenfield, B. L., & Bowen, S. (2013). Mindfulness-based relapse prevention with racial and ethnic minority women. Addictive Behaviors, 38(12), 2821–2824. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.08.018
Highlights
- Results from a trial of relapse prevention (RP) and mindfulness-based RP (MBRP)
- MBRP was more efficacious than RP for racial or ethnic minority female clients.
- At follow-up, minorities in MBRP had no drug use days and lower addiction severity.
Abstract
Racial and ethnic disparities in the treatment of addiction have been acknowledged for several years, yet little is known about which empirically supported treatments for substance use disorders are more or less effective in treating racial and ethnic minority clients. The current study was a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial of two evidence-based treatments, mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) and relapse prevention (RP), as part of a residential addiction treatment program for women referred by the criminal justice system (n = 70). At 15-week follow-up, regression analyses found that racial and ethnic minority women in MBRP, compared to non-Hispanic and racial and ethnic minority women in RP, reported significantly fewer drug use days (d = .31) and lower addiction severity (d = .65), based on the Addiction Severity Index. Although the small sample size is a limitation, the results suggest that MBRP may be more efficacious than traditional treatments for racial and ethnic minority women.