Awareness of body awareness during addiction treatment helps prevent relapse

This is the first time that the mindfulness approach is being studied as part of a large randomized trial in adjunctive therapy. Training helps people better understand the physical and emotional signals in their bodies and how they can respond to them to help them better regulate and manage their own care.

"We were able to teach this intervention successfully in eight weeks to a very distressed population, and the participants not only really learned these skills, but they also increased the awareness of their body and their regulation over the period of time. 'study,' said Cynthia J. Price, Associate Professor. UW School of Nursing and lead author of the study. "The majority of participants also reported consistent use of MABT skills, on a weekly basis, for the duration of the study."

And probably because of the use of skills acquired during the intervention, women have less relapsed into drug and alcohol use than those who have not benefited from the Intervention, said Price. The results were published in March in the journal Addiction to drugs and alcohol.

The training included individual outpatient coaching, in addition to treatment of substance use disorders that women were already receiving. The intervention is called "Consciousness Awareness in Body-Based Therapy" (MABT) and combines manual, mindfulness and psycho-educational approaches to teach interoceptive awareness and care techniques. related personnel. Interoceptive awareness is the ability to access and process sensory information from the body.

The researchers studied 187 women at three sites in the Seattle area. The cohort, all women in treatment for substance abuse disorder, was divided into three relatively equal groups. Each group continued their regular treatment against SUD. One group received only one treatment for TUD, another group learned mindfulness in addition to treatment, and the third group had a women's education program in addition to treatment to check whether time and additional attention explained the positive results of the study.

Women were tested early and at three, six and 12 months on a number of factors, including substance use, need for distress, emotion regulation (self-badessment and psychophysiology), awareness capacity and interoceptive consciousness. There have been lasting improvements in these areas for those who received the MABT intervention, but not for the other two study groups.

"Those who received MABT have less relapsed," said Price. "By learning to take care of their bodies, they have acquired important skills to take better care of themselves."

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