This article is focused on improving the quality of addiction treatment. Based on observations that patients are leaving treatment too early and/or are continuing to use substances during their care, the authors propose six actions that could help reorient and revitalize this kind of clinical work: (1) conceptualize and treat addictive disorders within a psychiatric/mental health framework; (2) make the creation of a strong therapeutic alliance a core part of the healing process; (3) understand patients' addictions and other problems using models based on multiple internal parts, voices, or modes; (4) make contingency management and the use of positive reinforcement systems a standard and central practice in all treatment settings; (5) envision long-term change and healing through the lens of identity theory; and (6) integrate the growing developments in recovery culture with formal treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article presents the Schema Therapy (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003) approach to the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Schema therapy draws on the cognitive-behavioral, attachment, psychodynamic, and emotion-focused traditions and conceptualizes patients who have borderline personality disorder as being under the sway of five modes or aspects of the self. The goal of the therapy is to reorganize this inner structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper explores the impact of the adoption of the contingency management approach by the Chemical Dependency Treatment Services of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC). The utilization of this approach grew out of an alliance between NIDA Clinical Trials Network-affiliated clinicians and researchers and a leadership team at the HHC. Interviews and dialogues with administrators, staff, and patients revealed a shared sense that the use of contingency management had: (1) increased patient motivation for treatment and recovery; (2) facilitated therapeutic progress and goal attainment; (3) improved the attitude and morale of many staff members and administrators; and (4) developed a more collegial and affirming relationship not only between patients and staff, but also among staff members.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Subst Abuse Treat
December 2003
This paper makes the case that a perspective called "Gradualism" could serve as a foundation for building a therapeutic continuum between the harm reduction and abstinence-oriented treatment worlds. In contrast to other integrationist writers (Denning, 2001; Marlatt, Blume, & Parks, 2001), this paper argues for the incorporation of abstinence into harm reduction approaches. The goal is to build on the strengths of both perspectives while reducing their weaknesses, and examples of each are provided.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe new Kreek-McHugh-Schluger-Kellogg scale ('KMSK scale') is designed to quantify self-exposure to opiates, cocaine, alcohol, and/or tobacco. Each section of the KMSK scale assesses the frequency, amount, and duration of use of a particular substance during the individual's period of greatest consumption. The scale also assesses the mode of use, whether the substance use is current or past, and whether each substance is the substance of choice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn analysis of the relationship among the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 1996) Drug Problems (DRG) scale scores, the Addiction Severity Index (ASI; McLellan et al., 1992) scores, and urine toxicology reports revealed that the PAI Drug Problem scale scores of 100 substance-using and substance-abusing men and women were distributed in a manner that was in agreement with the guidelines suggested by Morey (1991, 1996) in the PAI manual. There were significant correlations among the PAI DRG scale and the ASI scales related to frequency of use, negative consequences of use, and need and desire for treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF