Mindfulness therapy helps prevent drug and alcohol relapse

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A treatment program incorporating mindfulness meditation is better over the long term than traditional approaches at preventing relapses of drug and alcohol abuse, according to a new study. One year after treatment for substance abuse, far fewer participants who got relapse-prevention training including mindfulness techniques had used drugs or alcohol compared to those given relapse-prevention therapy alone or a standard 12-step program. “Addiction is really a tough one,” Sarah Bowen told Reuters Health. “I don’t want to say mindfulness is better for everyone, but it’s another option.” Bowen and her colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry that about 11 percent of people in the U.S. with substance abuse problems seek treatment every year, but between 40 percent and 60 percent relapse.