Addiction Science & Clinical Practice
April 18, 2018
Eric L Garland, Matthew O Howard
Contemporary advances in addiction neuroscience have paralleled increasing interest in the ancient mental training practice of mindfulness meditation as a potential therapy for addiction. In the past decade, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been studied as a treatment for an array addictive behaviors, including drinking, smoking, opioid misuse, and use of illicit substances like...
Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation
2018
Sarah E. Priddy, Matthew O Howard, Adam W. Hanley et al.
Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a pervasive public health problem with deleterious consequences for individuals, families, and society. Furthermore, SUD intervention is complicated by the continuous possibility of relapse. Despite decades of research, SUD relapse rates remain high, underscoring the need for more effective treatments. Scientific findings indicate that SUDs are driven by...
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research
2018
Eric L Garland, Matthew O Howard
Although opioid-treated chronic pain patients evidence blunted responsiveness to natural rewards, focusing on naturally rewarding stimuli can produce analgesia in these patients. A prior randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that a social work intervention-Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE)-enhanced natural reward processing as indicated by event-related brain potentials...
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
April 24, 2017
Wen Li, Eric L Garland, Patricia McGovern et al.
Empirical studies have identified increasing rates of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and associated adverse consequences. However, very few evidence-based interventions have been evaluated for IGD or problematic video gaming behaviors. This study evaluated Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) as a treatment for IGD. Thirty adults (Mage = 25.0, SD = 5.4) with IGD or problematic video...
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
April 26, 2014
Eric L Garland, Elizabeth A. Thomas, Matthew O Howard
Context: Chronic pain impacts one-third of the U.S. population, and its effects are debilitating for individuals and costly to the medical system. Although opioids are commonly prescribed to address chronic pain, they confer risk for misuse and addiction in some patients and may not fully restore life function-particularly with regard to psychosocial factors. Because of the multiplicity of...
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
February 3, 2014
Eric L Garland, Eron G Manusov, Brett Froeliger et al.
Objective: Opioid pharmacotherapy is now the leading treatment for chronic pain, a problem that affects nearly one third of the U.S. population. Given the dramatic rise in prescription opioid misuse and opioid-related mortality, novel behavioral interventions are needed. The purpose of this study was to conduct an early-stage randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery...
Journal of social work practice in the addictions
July 1, 2012
Eric L Garland, Noah M Schwarz, Amber Kelly et al.
Mindfulness-based interventions may decrease addictive behaviors while promoting non-reactivity to stressors. This study employed qualitative methods to enhance understanding of mindfulness-related treatment effects. Study participants were eighteen alcohol dependent adults residing in a therapeutic community who had participated in a Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE)...
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
December 1, 2010
Eric L Garland, Matthew O Howard
Although volatile substance inhalation is prevalent in many contexts and presents a serious threat to public health, this pernicious form of substance misuse remains poorly understood. The question of why people seek and misuse inhalants may be addressed by examining phenomenological accounts of inhalant intoxication, yet few investigations of inhalant intoxication experiences are reported in...