Perceptions of Addiction Medications Within Collegiate Recovery Communities.

Objectives: Addiction medications (AM) are effective in improving recovery outcomes, but many barriers still exist that reduce their implementation among young adults. While the perception of AM has been explored within clinicians and counselors in many settings, it has not yet been documented within collegiate recovery communities (CRC). The aim of this brief report is to assess the acceptability and intent to use AM among students in recovery, and to evaluate the effect of attitudes, perceived AM effectiveness, and social norms on these outcomes.

Codependency and Prefrontal Cortex Functioning: Preliminary Examination of Substance Use Disorder Impacted Family Members.

Background And Objectives: Substance use disorders (SUDs) have negative impacts on an entire family system and each family member may be at risk to develop a "codependency" on their SUD loved-one. Research has demonstrated that SUDs in the family environment associate with altered brain functioning of family members; however, research has not examined specific associations between codependency and brain functioning.

Methods: Prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation of family members (n = 38) was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy as they viewed images of a SUD loved-one (experimental group; n = 26) or of a "target family member" (control group; n = 12).

Hope, coping skills, and the prefrontal cortex in alcohol use disorder recovery.

Background: Alcohol use disorders adversely affect individual and societal health. These disorders are a chronic brain disease, and protective factors against relapse should be studied. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) dysfunction is evident in alcohol use disorders, and research that explores recovery of the PFC in alcohol use disorders is needed, specifically in regard to how psychological and behavioral factors can augment medicalized treatments and protect against relapse.

Functional near infrared spectroscopy as a potential biological assessment of addiction recovery: preliminary findings.

Background: Addiction science has primarily utilized self-report, continued substance use, and relapse factors to explore the process of recovery. However, the entry into successful abstinence substantially reduces our assessment abilities. Advances in neuroscience may be the key to objective understanding, treating, and monitoring long-term success in addiction recovery.

Organizational Systems Questionnaire (OSQ) Validity Study.

Marriage and family therapists (MFTs), who are trained in systems theory and consult with complex and difficult systems (e.g., couples and families), are uniquely suited to both assess and intervene in broader organizational systems.

A family systems-based model of organizational intervention.

Employee assistance professionals are expected to be proficient at intervening in organizations and creating meaningful behavioral change in interpersonal functioning. Because of their training in family systems theories and concepts, marriage and family therapists (MFTs) are well suited to serve organizations as "systems consultants." Unfortunately, the authors were unable to identify any family systems-based models for organizational intervention that have been empirically tested and supported.

A place for marriage and family services in employee assistance programs (EAPs): a survey of EAP client problems and needs.

Marriage and family services have not been widely recognized as part of employee assistance programs (EAP), although family and relational problems are widely cited as sources of problems on the job. EAP clients (N = 800, 97% self-referred) indicated how much family, psychological/emotional, drug, alcohol, employment-related, legal, and medical problems troubled them and the need for services in each area. Psychological/emotional (66%) and family (65%) problem areas frequently were rated "considerable" or "extreme.