Addiction Research & Theory

BACKGROUND: While positive impacts of recovery capital and social capital in facilitating substance use disorder (SUD) recovery is increasingly documented, research has shown that low-income and marginalized individuals have lower social capital and may rely on different networks. A more comprehensive approach is needed to understand the social capital of low-income individuals with SUD and how these relationships impact their treatment and recovery. METHODS: Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed employing thematic analysis...

BACKGROUND: Limited prior research to examine co-occurrence of prescription drug misuse with other substances among young adults has documented outcomes that are more problematic for those with higher rates of co-ingesting alcohol. There is a need to understand how college students in this period of heightened risk use other salient substances in moments of their prescription misuse in daily life. METHOD: Young-adult college students who engaged in recent prescription misuse ( N = 297) completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) over a 28-day period, resulting in 23,578 reports...

Social recovery capital (SRC) is the combination of social resources that can be used to initiate and sustain addiction recovery through friends, family, and peers. Broadly, understanding one's SRC allows us to get a sense of where one has social support for recovery and where there may be social barriers to their recovery process. SRC is often a vital component of many people's recovery journey, yet our understanding of how best to use this concept in research and practice remains underdeveloped. To improve understanding of the role of social recovery capital and strategies to measure and increase it, we present a roadmap involving a five-pronged research agenda to: (1) Refine the measurement of social recovery capital; (2) Model the complexity of social recovery capital empirically; (3) Integrate personality science with social recovery capital research; (4) Optimize evidence-based behavior change techniques of social recovery capital; and (5) Incorporate an intersectional framework when examining or applying social recovery capital...

BACKGROUND: Recovery capital theory provides a biopsychosocial framework for identifying and measuring strengths and barriers that can be targeted to support recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. This systematic review analyzed and synthesized all quantitative approaches that have measured recovery capital since 2016. METHOD: Three databases were searched to identify studies published from 2016 to 2023. Eligible studies explicitly stated they measured recovery capital in participants recovering from alcohol and/or drug addiction...

Stigma relating to substance use disorders is one of the many barriers to enrolling in substance use treatment. Stigma is also related to poorer substance use treatment outcomes, yet few studies of substance use and substance use treatment outcomes include measures of stigma. Stigma is a multi-level experience occurring as a result of discrimination within a systematic power structure promoting inequities among marginalized populations. Several domains of stigma are manifested among individuals seeking treatment for a substance use disorder, with internalized stigma being the most commonly measured...

Expectancy theory supports alcohol expectancies, or the expected effects of drinking, as an important factor in alcohol use behaviors. Recent research supports that alcohol expectancies fluctuate daily, but scant research has examined specific types of expectancies and their associations with alcohol use at the daily level. Consequently, the present study examined (1) the daily association between select expectancies (i.e., sociability, tension reduction, liquid courage) and likelihood of drinking, and (2) whether daily expectancies predict alcohol use outcomes (i...

The total consumption model (TCM) postulates a close link between total consumption and levels of harm within the population, which has important implications for prevention. This review aimed to explore evidence relating to the application of the TCM and theoretical elements associated with it (i.e. the distribution of harms; the concentration of consumption) to gambling by reviewing evidence pertaining to the distribution of harms across the population; the concentration of gambling consumption; and evidence of the validity of the TCM in gambling...

The goals of the present study were to describe the development of the first national longitudinal study of collegiate recovery programs (CRP) students; provide an updated characterization of CRP students' demographics, past problem severity, and current recovery-related functioning; and examine the perceived impact of COVID-19 on CRP students' recovery. Universities and community colleges with CRPs across the United States and Ontario, Canada, were invited to partner on this project. Launched in fall 2020, three cohorts of participants were recruited...

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Many experts in the etiology, assessment, and treatment of substance use/addiction view stigma and stigmatization - negatively branding addiction and substance users - as obstacles to the solution of the substance misuse problem. Discussions on this topic impact research and policy, and result in oft-repeated calls to remove the stigma from substance use and users. The goal of the article is to analyze the stigmatization concept as applied to substance use/addiction. It is widely accepted in the literature that stigmatization negatively affects substance users because addiction stigma interferes in both seeking and receiving professional care...

Recovery coaches are individuals with lived experience with recovery from substance use disorder who typically engender a greater sense of trust than found with other types of healthcare providers. However, there currently are no validated tools that measure the connection between recovery coaches and their participants. The purpose of this study was to describe the initial development of the Scales for Participant Alliance with Recovery Coach (SPARC) to measure recovery coach connection or alliance, including initial psychometric analyses...

BACKGROUND: Perceived risk of harm associated with cannabis use has decreased in recent decades, particularly among emerging adults who show the highest prevalence of use. Cannabis-related protective behavioral strategies (PBS) are associated with lower cannabis use and fewer consequences; however, individuals who perceive using cannabis as low risk may use cannabis PBS less often. Therefore, using cross-sectional data, we examined the associations between perceived risk of harm associated with cannabis use, cannabis PBS, and cannabis use frequency...

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is often overlooked in primary care even though it has wide-ranging impacts. The Structured Medication Review (SMR) in England is a new 'holistic' service designed to tackle problematic polypharmacy, delivered by clinical pharmacists in a general practice setting. Implementation has been protracted owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores early patient experiences of the SMR and views on the acceptability of integrating clinical attention to alcohol as another drug linked to their conditions and medicines, rather than as a standalone 'healthy living' or 'lifestyle' question...

Recent conceptualizations frame addiction recovery as a complex process involving changes across behavioral, physical, psychological, and social domains. These broad conceptualizations can be difficult to apply directly to research, making detailed models of individual dimensions necessary to guide empirical work and subsequent clinical interventions. We used Kelly and Hoeppner's (2015) biaxial formulation of recovery as a basis for a detailed examination of social processes in recovery using social network approaches...

The aim of the present study was to conduct a preliminary investigation of the associations between facets of impulsivity and alcohol outcomes through motives for drinking responsibly described by self-determination theory among college students. Participants (N=2,808) were part of a multisite investigation of college student drinking across 10 universities in 8 states in the U.S. who reported past-month drinking. Results of a structural equation model testing all possible indirect associations simultaneously indicated that one-third (20 out of 60) of the indirect associations were statistically significant ( p <...

BACKGROUND: There has been an increase in methamphetamine use across the globe, despite widespread control of the drug, prevention, and treatment. Community-based approaches have proven effective in tackling diverse health-related challenges including substance use; however, little is known regarding community programs targeting methamphetamine use. We conducted a systematic literature review on community programs aimed at tackling the use of methamphetamine across the globe. METHOD: Relevant literature from peer-reviewed and gray literature sources were systematically identified...

The present paper highlights how alcohol use disorder (AUD) conceptualizations and resulting diagnostic criteria have evolved over time in correspondence with interconnected sociopolitical influences in the United States. We highlight four illustrative examples of how DSM-defined alcoholism, abuse/dependence, and AUD have been influenced by sociopolitical factors. In doing so, we emphasize the importance of recognizing and understanding such sociopolitical factors in the application of AUD diagnoses. Last, we offer a roadmap to direct the process of future efforts toward the improved diagnosis of AUD, with an emphasis on pursuing falsifiability, acknowledging researchers' assumptions about human behavior, and collaborating across subfields...

Recovery housing is an important resource for many in their recovery from alcohol and other drug use disorders. Yet providers of recovery housing face a number of challenges. Many of these challenges are rooted in stigma and bias about recovery housing. The ability to describe the service and purported mechanisms of action vis-a-vis an overarching framework, approach, or orientation could also go a long way in adding credence to recovery housing as a service delivery mechanism. Several aspects of social model recovery are often explicitly built or organically reflected in how recovery housing operates, yet describing recovery housing in these terms often does little to demystify key features of recovery housing...

Individuals with alcohol use disorder may excessively value alcohol reinforcement over other types of rewards and may seek out environments supportive of alcohol consumption despite negative consequences. Therefore, examining ways to increase engagement in substance-free activities may be useful in treating alcohol use disorder. Past research has focused on preference and frequency of engagement in alcohol-related versus alcohol-free activities. However, no study to-date has examine the incompatibility of such activities with alcohol consumption, an important step in preventing possible adverse consequences during treatment for alcohol use disorder and for ensuring that activities do not function in a complementary fashion with alcohol consumption...

Given the major public health issue of substance use in the college environment and among college students, we must improve our understanding of students attempting to resolve substance related issues. Though much of research and policy attention has focused on individual progress according to personal characteristics and experiences, a much broader, theoretically informed understanding based on interpersonal relationships and contextual conditions of the school and society is warranted. Collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) are a system-level intervention that acknowledges the individual in context and seeks to support them and capitalize on their own skills within a safe environment to practice recovery...