
Specific behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions administered to individuals are reviewed below, followed by a review of family-based treatments. The evaluation of CBT for SUDs in special populations such as those diagnosed with other Axis I disorders (i.e., dual diagnosis), pregnant women, and incarcerated individuals is beyond the scope of the current review, and thus the descriptions provided below focus on SUD treatment specifically. Therapy can be a helpful tool in managing mental health symptoms and navigating difficult life transitions, such as when you quit drinking alcohol or using drugs. There are several types of therapy used in addiction treatment, and one of the most effective is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This article will discuss the use of CBT in addiction treatment and teach you how to determine if CBT is the right therapy approach for you.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for substance use disorders

If you are interested in learning more about cognitive behavioral therapy for substance use disorders, help is available. One of the best predictors of success in recovery is staying connected to treatment for the appropriate amount of time. This means that, from the first step, it is important to follow a treatment plan which is customized to your needs. CBT is a widely effective treatment approach for many people and can help you challenge negative beliefs about yourself and start to create a new worldview. Substance use disorder is complex and multifaceted, and, therefore, its treatment requires persistence and constant updating in scientific literature by health professionals. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has shown to be one of the approaches with certain evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in the treatment of people with this diagnosis, although therapeutic success is still a challenge.
MeSH terms
CBT is an essential part of many evidence-based addiction treatment programs that are practiced in a variety of settings. When the insurance policy covers treatment at the relevant facility, CBT and other interventions should be covered. DBT is a comprehensive and multifaceted therapy designed https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to help patients cope with extreme emotional suffering and, often, self-injurious behavior. Many patients seeking DBT have undergone other forms of therapy without experiencing significant improvement.
Find Out If Your Insurance Plan Covers CBT Treatment
Below we review individual and group treatments including motivational interventions, contingency management strategies, and Relapse Prevention and related interventions with a focus on functional analysis. Alcoholics Anonymous To clarify key terms used in this manuscript, the term substance use is defined as taking any illicit psychoactive substance or improper use Pof any prescribed or over the counter medication. Substance use disorders as used here will refer to substance abuse and substance dependence. Symptoms of substance abuse reflect the external consequences of problematic use such as failure to fulfill role obligations, legal problems, physically hazardous use, and interpersonal difficulty resulting from use. Symptoms of substance dependence reflect more internal consequences of use such as physical withdrawal upon discontinuation of a substance and difficulty with cutting down or controlling use of a substance.

Research has shown that CBT can be an effective treatment for substance use disorders, both on its own and in combination with other treatment strategies. CBT typically involves a number of distinct interventions—such as operant learning strategies, skills building, and motivational elements—that can either be used on their own or combined. As noted, a variety of CM procedures have shown success in helping patients reduce drug use.
- The information on the diary card lets the therapist know how to allocate session time.
- Approximately 60% of people who are treated with cognitive behavioral therapy for a substance use problem are able to maintain their recovery for a year.
- DBT is a complex treatment modality that makes many demands of therapists and requires extensive training to be administered in the way it was developed and tested.
- Our staff utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy and other treatment modalities to help people recover from substance use disorders every day.
- For example, among individuals with low levels of literacy, the use of written homework forms may need to be replaced by alternative means of monitoring home practice (e.g., using simplified forms or having the patient call to leave a phone message regarding completion of an assignment).
How Does CBT Work?

In CBT, the B, or your beliefs, is considered the most important, as it helps you change your beliefs to have better consequences, or outcomes. Instead of looking backward, which is a very important thing to do in other kinds of therapy, it works well for people to gain insight as to why these things occurred,” explains Dr. Robin Hornstein, a Philadelphia-based psychologist who works with a variety of populations using CBT as well as many other therapies. CBT is a form of talk therapy that helps you explore how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors all work together. Depending on what stage of treatment you are in and what setting it is held in, your insurance may cover the service at a higher or lower percentage. For example, inpatient coverage may be covered at a higher rate than outpatient, and outpatient may be covered more than aftercare. By better understanding the difficulties that contribute to substance use, people can then look for ways to better manage difficult thoughts, emotions, or situations.
CBT for Drug & Alcohol Addiction Treatment
- Word of mouth can be a great way to find a clinic or a therapist that someone you know has personally used.
- In this instance the patient would be encouraged to refrain from drinking at the holiday party and assess the degree to which the event was enjoyable.
- Oxford Treatment Center is a leading outpatient and inpatient drug and alcohol rehab in Mississippi.
- It’s changing the way you feel or act toward something by changing how you think about the situation.
- Long story short—cognitive behavioral therapy works well for some, but not for everyone.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy has shown to be one of the approaches with certain evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in the treatment of people with this diagnosis, although therapeutic success is still a challenge.
In addition, the ability to reject offers for substances can be a limitation and serves a challenge to recovery. Rehearsal in session of socially-acceptable responses to offers for alcohol or drugs provides the patient with a stronger skill set for applying these refusals outside of the session. Where relevant, this rehearsal can be supplemented by imaginal exposure or emotional induction to increase the degree to which the rehearsal is similar to the patient’s high risk situations for drug use. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for substance use disorders has demonstrated efficacy as both a monotherapy and as part of combination treatment strategies.

Benefits of CBT for Alcoholism and Addiction
- Our admissions navigators can help you explore different rehab payment options and verify your drug and alcohol rehab insurance coverage.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for substance use disorders has shown efficacy as a monotherapy and as part of combination treatment strategies.
- CBT uses the same learning processes that led to the development of alcohol and drug dependence in the first place to help people unlearn maladaptive behaviors.
- One outcome of the Blending Initiative was the inception of the Clinical Trials Network (CTN), a 17 site regional research and training center which collaborates with many community treatment programs to study the effectiveness of specific interventions in diverse community settings and patient populations.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapy approach that can be used to help treat substance use disorders.
- More than 53 randomized controlled trials on alcohol and drug abuse were examined to assess the outcomes of CBT treatment.
One outcome of the Blending Initiative was the inception of the Clinical Trials Network (CTN), a 17 site regional research and training center which collaborates with many community treatment programs to study the effectiveness of specific interventions in diverse community settings and patient populations. Other efforts to increase access to CBT and other evidence-based treatments for SUDs are also underway.75-77 Future research focusing on methods to bridge the gap between theory and practice in a way that supports community clinicians so that systemic change can truly be effective is of particular importance. Research suggests that the skills obtained through CBT are enduring and can also be applied in other areas of cognitive behavioral therapy for substance use disorders an individual’s life as well. Approximately 60% of people who are treated with cognitive behavioral therapy for a substance use problem are able to maintain their recovery for a year. The information on the diary card lets the therapist know how to allocate session time.
CBT for substance use disorders captures a broad range of behavioral treatments including those targeting operant learning processes, motivational barriers to improvement, and traditional variety of other cognitive-behavioral interventions. Overall, these interventions have demonstrated efficacy in controlled trials and may be combined with each other or with pharmacotherapy to provide more robust outcomes. Despite this heterogeneity, core elements emerge based in a conceptual model of SUDs as disorders characterized by learning processes and driven by the strongly reinforcing effects of substances of abuse. Particular challenges to the field include the determination of the most effective combination treatment strategies and improving the dissemination of CBT to service provision settings. Novel treatment strategies including more scalable modalities (such as computer-based programs) and combination strategies to improve rates or speed of treatment response (such as DCS) may aid in the transportability of treatments outside of research settings.