How Mindfulness Can Help Kick Drug Addiction

How Mindfulness Can Help Kick Drug Addiction

Mindfulness techniques and methadone may reduce cravings and pain among people experiencing opioid addiction and chronic pain, research finds.

The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, involved 30 patients.

The findings showed that those who received methadone and a mindfulness training-based intervention were 1.3 times better at controlling their cravings and had significantly greater improvements in pain, stress, and positive emotions, even though they were aware of more cravings than those who only received standard methadone treatment and counseling.

Mindfulness is the meditative practice of focusing on the present moment and accepting one’s thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without judgment.


 Get The Latest By Email

Weekly Magazine Daily Inspiration

“Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) has been an effective form of medication treatment for opioid use disorder,” says Nina Cooperman, associate professor and clinical psychologist in the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “However, nearly half of individuals on MMT continue to use opioids during treatment or relapse with six months.”

Cooperman says many of those with opioid addictions experience chronic pain, anxiety, and depression while on methadone maintenance, which is why mindfulness-based, non-drug interventions seem promising.

The researchers say mindfulness-based interventions could help people dependent on opioids increase their self-awareness and self-control over cravings and be less reactive to emotional and physical pain. Individuals with an opioid addiction could also learn to change their negative thoughts and savor pleasant events, which may help them to regulate their emotions and experience more enjoyment.

Source: Rutgers University Coauthors are from Rutgers and the University of Utah.

books_spirituality

More By This Author

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES

English Afrikaans Arabic Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Danish Dutch Filipino Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Malay Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Swahili Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese

follow InnerSelf on

facebook icontwitter iconyoutube iconinstagram iconpintrest iconrss icon

 Get The Latest By Email

Weekly Magazine Daily Inspiration

Wednesday, 26 July 2023 12:55

With the rising cost of living, gyms memberships and fitness classes are becoming increasingly unaffordable. But the good news is you can make just as much progress at home.

Tuesday, 20 April 2021 08:05

Wild bees are essential for sustaining the landscapes we love. A healthy community of wild pollinators ensures that most flowering plants have an A-team pollinator species and a reserve bench of...

Saturday, 15 May 2021 16:24

There exist several approaches to obtaining optimal health, all of them important, each of them acting in some way on all the aspects of our beings. I know that if a technique were valid for...

Sunday, 23 May 2021 08:15

We sometimes need to use antibiotics to treat sick animals, but taking advantage of opportunities to reduce antibiotics use could benefit everyone

Monday, 24 July 2023 16:37

Uterine fibroids, or leiomyomas, are benign tumors commonly occurring in the uterus. They affect many women, particularly African Americans, and can lead to clinical symptoms such as abnormal...

Thursday, 27 July 2023 22:59

Loneliness can profoundly impact our physical and emotional health, and a new study from Tulane University has shed light on its significant role in the development of cardiovascular disease among...

New Attitudes - New Possibilities

InnerSelf.comClimateImpactNews.com | InnerPower.net
MightyNatural.com | WholisticPolitics.com | InnerSelf Market
Copyright ©1985 - 2021 InnerSelf Publications. All Rights Reserved.