Spirituality, Religiosity and Addiction Recovery: Current Perspectives
Abstract
Substance use disorders are an important public health problem with a multifactorial etiology and limited effective treatment options. Within this context, spirituality-based approaches may provide interesting and useful options in managing substance use disorders. This kind of intervention can have positive effects in alleviating some core symptoms associated with substance use, such as aggressiveness. Improvement in cessation rates for alcohol, cocaine and opioid use disorders have also been described in some clinical studies. However, spirituality may not play a beneficial role in some subgroups, such as among individuals with crack cocaine and cannabis use disorders. A widely available intervention for alcohol use disorders is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which can be seen as a spirituality-based intervention. Spirituality also seems to be especially beneficial for minorities such as Latinos, African-Americans and Native-Americans. Moreover, spiritual-based interventions are also helpful alternatives in many rural environments where conventional healthcare for substance use disorders may not be easily available. However, spiritual-based interventions may be considered as a possible adjunctive therapeutic option to conventional treatments. There is a need for prospective studies outside U.S., especially where spiritual-based approaches are available. It may be difficult to carry out randomized controlled trials because of the nature of the spiritual/ religious dimensions. Ho…
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R/S has even greater protective effects regarding substance use disorders and suicide risk.
“and even greater protective effects regarding substance use disorders10 and suicide risk.11,12”
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- Authors
- Beraldo, L., Gil, F., Ventriglio, A., de Andrade, A. G., da Silva, A. G., Torales, J., Gonçalves, P. D., Bhugra, D., & Castaldelli-Maia, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- ABC Center for Mental Health Studies, Santo Andre, SP, Brazil
- University of Foggia (IT)
- Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
- Brazilian Psychiatric Association, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
- Universidad Nacional de Asunción (PY)
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Castaldelli-Maia, João M.
- Venue
- Current Drug Research Reviews
- Publisher
- Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
- Published
- 2019-02-26
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 26-32
- ISSN
- 2589-9775 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2808496461
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Drug Research Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Keywords
- spirituality, religiosity, addiction recovery, substance use disorders, Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholism, cocaine dependence, opioid use disorder, cannabis use disorder, crack cocaine, aggression, minority groups, rural healthcare access, adjunctive therapy
- MeSH terms
- Alcoholics Anonymous, Humans, Religion, Substance-Related Disorders, Spirituality
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