These covert antecedents include lifestyle factors, such as overall stress level, one’s temperament and personality, as well as cognitive factors. These may serve to set up a relapse, for example, using rationalization, denial, or a desire for immediate gratification. Lifestyle factors have been proposed as the covert antecedents most strongly related to the risk of relapse. It involves the degree of balance in the person’s life between perceived external demands and internally fulfilling or enjoyable activities.

Genetic influences on treatment response and relapse

• Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
• An individual who believes they’ve failed and violated their sobriety goals may begin to think that they’re not good enough to be considered a true abstainer.
• Another example is Taylor, who has been doing a wonderful job taking walks and engaging in healthier eating.

Twenty-one of the 27 studies were RCTs/quasi-experiments; five were nonrandomized and one was purely economic. Twenty-six of these primary studies contributed to the estimate of the effect of AA/TSF and one was used purely for economic purposes (Mundt et al., 2012) and therefore did not contribute to the estimate of the effect of AA/TSF as it did not include a comparison condition. Three of the studies contributing to the estimate of the effectiveness of AA/TSF also included economic studies, for a total of four included economic studies reported across five papers. Most studies were conducted in the USA, with the exception of three conducted in Norway (1 study, Vederhus et al., 2014), the UK (1 study, Manning et al., 2012) and Canada (1 study, Brown et al., 2002). None of the studies included a waitlist control; thus, AA/TSF was always compared to some kind of active treatment.

A Good Treatment Program Can Help You To Avoid The Abstinence Violation Effect

Overall, increased research attention on nonabstinence treatment is vital to filling gaps in knowledge. For example, despite being widely cited as a primary rationale for nonabstinence treatment, the extent to which offering nonabstinence options increases treatment utilization (or retention) is unknown. In addition to evaluating nonabstinence treatments specifically, researchers could help move the field forward by increased attention to nonabstinence goals more broadly. For example, all studies with SUD populations could include brief questionnaires assessing short-and long-term substance use goals, and treatment researchers could report the extent to which nonabstinence goals are honored or permitted in their study interventions and contexts, regardless of treatment type. There is also a need for updated research examining standards of practice in community SUD treatment, including acceptance of non-abstinence goals and facility policies such as administrative discharge. In terms of clinical applications of RP, the most notable development in the last decade has been the emergence and increasing application of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) for addictive behaviors [112,113].

Outcome Studies for Relapse Prevention

One day, when he was faced with a stressful situation, he felt overwhelmed, gave in to the urge, and had a drink. I have lost all that time,” which can trigger a self-destructive mindset and potentially lead to further relapse. Eleven of the 27 studies were rated as potentially high risk for selection bias (random sequence generation and allocation concealment) because they either used alternation as a nonrandom component in the sequence generation process (6 studies) or were nonrandomized (5 studies). Attrition bias was unclear in approximately half (14) of the studies, abstinence violation effect high in 9 studies (largely due to moderate (≥20%) attrition rates) and low in the remaining studies. Performance bias (blinding of participants and personnel) was most often high (e.g. if the clinical context precluded participant or personnel blinding) or unclear. Risk of bias arising from the remaining domains (i.e. reporting bias, comparability of cohorts for baseline characteristics and outcome measures, selection of the nonexposed cohort, protection against contamination, detection bias and blinding of outcome assessment) was predominately low or unclear.

Specific Intervention strategies in Relapse Prevention

The most promising pharmacogenetic evidence in alcohol interventions concerns the OPRM1 A118G polymorphism as a moderator of clinical response to naltrexone (NTX). An initial retrospective analysis of NTX trials found that OPRM1 influenced treatment response, such that individuals with the Asp40 variant (G allele) receiving NTX had a longer time until the first heavy drinking day and were half as likely to relapse compared to those homozygous for the Asn40 variant (A allele) [92]. This finding was later extended in the COMBINE study, such that G carriers showed a greater proportion of days abstinent and a lower proportion of heavy drinking https://ecosoberhouse.com/ days compared in response to NTX versus placebo, whereas participants homozygous for the A allele did not show a significant medication response [93]. Moreover, 87.1% of G allele carriers who received NTX were classified as having a good clinical outcome at study endpoint, versus 54.5% of Asn40 homozygotes who received NTX. (Moderating effects of OPRM1 were specific to participants receiving medication management without the cognitive-behavioral intervention [CBI] and were not evident in participants receiving NTX and CBI). A smaller placebo controlled study has also found evidence for better responses to NTX among Asp40 carriers [94].

• While AUD treatment studies commonly rely on guidelines set by government agencies regarding a “low-risk” or “nonhazardous” level of alcohol consumption (e.g., Enggasser et al., 2015), no such guidelines exist for illicit drug use.
• Counteracting the effects of the AVE is necessary to support long-term recovery from addiction.

Emerging topics in relapse and relapse prevention

Other Literature Sources