Psychotherapies Used in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorder: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Drug addiction is a serious social, economic, and health issue that persists worldwide. However, the efforts and certain measures taken to curb this problem seem to be counterproductive. The high addiction relapse rates and rising number of addiction cases show the requirement for proper treatment. In general, a variety of evidencebased treatment interventions for drug addiction are available. However, the gap between the availability of evidence-based therapies and their limited implementation in practice has yet to be bridged. As recommended by previous studies, psychotherapy (‘Talk therapy’), pharmacotherapy (medication-assisted treatment), alone or in combination, can be used to treat drug addiction, with the capability of resolving the high relapse rate. This article provides an overview of the evidence for, and clinical application of, psychotherapeutic approaches used in the treatment of Substance Use Disorders (SUD). Given the scope of the literature, this review will focus on the psychotherapeutic approaches used in the treatment of illicit drug use disorders, including addictive pharmaceutics, while excluding legal drugs like alcohol and nicotine. Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Contingency Management interventions (CM), Community reinforcement approach, Motivational enhancement therapy, 12-step facilitation therapy, family therapy, and Multisystem Therapy (MST) are some of the most prevalent evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches currently in practice. Evidence suggests that the combination of different psychotherapies with other treatment interventions is expected to improve treatment outcomes.