Wednesday 16 May, 2001
The Spiritual Approach To Addiction
Programmes to help drug and alcohol addicts abstain from addictive substances are more effective if they have a 'spiritual component', according to researchers in the United States.
A study of how recovering addicts fared a year after treatment has found that spiritual programmes, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, were more effective than treatment in a hospital clinic. BBC Science reports.
Recovery Programmes
Addiction recovery programmes like Alcoholics Anonymous emphasise a 'spiritual approach' to recovery from addiction.
The Stanford University study found that recovering addicts were more likely to abstain from drugs and alcohol if they were attending a spiritually oriented programme, like Alcoholics Anonymous, than if they were attending a hospital outpatients' clinic.
Spiritual And Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in the 1930s, and its 12-step programme encourages members to turn to God or a Higher Power for help in overcoming addiction. Whilst the group does not keep official membership lists, it estimates that there are currently 99,020 groups in operation across the world, with a total membership of 1,995,804.
Clinical treatment, on the other hand, emphasises cognitive skills training and psychotherapy. With a scientific focus, patients rely more heavily on professional counselling services that are likely to deal with teaching people how to deal with situations that may lead to drinking and how to cope with the negativity of alcoholism.
The study found that people attending meetings styled on the AA approach were more likely to be abstaining from drugs or alcohol a year after first seeking help, compared to addicts who were given clinical treatment.
Dr Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry at The Stanford University School of Medicine, California, and leader of the research, says spiritual programmes have been widely criticised for not being based on medical science. But, he says, these programmes are just as effective as hospital-based treatment and could in fact be cheaper than conventional medicine.
Support Groups
Whilst Dr Humpreys identified that the costs and length of treatment were comparable, the focus of the study examined the care provided in the year after discharge from inpatient treatment, when costs are very different.
| 'The study showed that the faith-based approach significantly lowers post-treatment costs by about two-thirds.' | |
Groups such as AA and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) encourage their members to rely on their support groups, as opposed to doctors, after leaving hospital.
The study suggests that in making connections with other people who have been through similar situations and treatment, individuals are more likely to abstain from drink and drugs and consequently reduce the chances of hospitalisation and costly psychiatric treatment.
Speaking on the cost saving benefits of the spiritually orientated programmes, Dr Humphreys has commented:
'We, as a society, are fortunate to have a developed system of self help organisations that do not cost the taxpayer or the health-care system a dime.'
'Organisations like AA not only reduce human misery, they also take a big burden off of our increasingly resource-strapped health care system. Hence it is important for health care professionals to learn about these organisations and develop connections with them.'
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| 12-Steps To Recovery |
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At the heart of the Alcoholics Anonymous programme are the following 12-steps to recovery:
1 We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5 Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10 Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
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