Mindfulness impairments in individuals seeking treatment for substance use disorders
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Mindfulness training may be an effective treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). Little research has been done, however, on baseline levels of mindfulness in the substance using population. OBJECTIVES/METHODS: We investigated mindfulness levels using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in individuals presenting for substance use treatment, and compared polydrug vs. monodrug users, as well as investigated for differences between groups based on substance used, predicting that group means would fall below the mean obtained from a large national adult sample, that the different drug groups would have comparable scores, and that the polydrug users would have a significantly lower score than do monodrug users. RESULTS: We found that the means of most drug groups were below the national mean, and that the polydrug users had a lower score on the MAAS than did monodrug users (4 vs. 3.6, p = 0.04). We were also surprised to find that opiate users had a significantly higher score (4.31) than did users of other substances (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that mindfulness deficits may be common in the substance using population, that there may be sub-groups in which these deficits are more pronounced, and that they may be a suitable focus of SUD treatment. These findings lend support to the ongoing development of mindfulness-based treatments for SUDs, and suggest that particular sub-groups may benefit more than others. Future research can aim at clarifying these deficits, and at elucidating their clinical relevance.
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Patients with SUD seem to have a significantly lower level of trait mindfulness compared to healthy controls.
“Patients with SUD seem to have a significantly lower level of trait mindfulness in comparison to that of healthy controls.30”
From Feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of a mindfulness-based relapse prevention program in a naturalistic setting among treatment-seeking patients with alcohol use disorder: A prospective observational study (2019) · cites this paper as [30]
The Results report that most substance-use treatment groups scored below a historical national adult mean. But the Discussion states that there was no healthy comparison group, that the statistical significance of the difference is uncertain, and that the questionnaire cannot distinguish trait from state mindfulness. The cited paper therefore does not establish the claimed significant difference in trait mindfulness versus healthy controls. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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- Authors
- Dakwar, E., Mariani, J. P., & Levin, F. R.
- Affiliations
- New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dakwar, Elias
- ORCID
- Levin, Frances R.
- Venue
- The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-03-17
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 165-169
- ISSN
- 0095-2990 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-9891
- PMC
- PMC3119030
- OpenAlex
- W2060600272
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 4.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32DA007294)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Keywords
- mindfulness, substance use disorders, polydrug use, opiate use, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, addiction treatment, mindfulness-based interventions
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Attention, Awareness, Consciousness, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, New York, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, Socioeconomic Factors, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Substance-Related Disorders, Young Adult
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