In case of addiction, opting to use evidence-based therapies, treatments that have been shown scientifically to be effective, over and again raises your odds of living a life of continuous recovery. As opposed to other methods which rely on single opinion or experience, evidence based practices have been subject to stringent tests of clinical research, and have proven to be effective in certain conditions. Knowledge on the efficacy of treatment options will guide you or your adored one to make sound choices in treatment.​

What Makes Treatment "Evidence-Based"?

Evidence-based treatment is an expression of utilizing the most effective interventions that can be used to treat patients effectively and efficiently using the available scientific evidence. These are treatments that are tested and screened by clinical research studies and were proved effective in the disorders that they treat. Studies have continuously revealed that evidence-based treatment of addiction enhances health and wellbeing as well as the outcome.​

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

How It Works

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been regarded as a first-line behavioral strategy to address alcohol and substance use disorders. CBT is a time-limited, multisession treatment, which focuses on the cognitive, affective, and environmental vulnerabilities to substance use and offers behavioral self-control skills training.​

In contrast to other therapies, which delve into the past, CBT is about the present, which is to teach people how the thoughts and actions they practice affect their feelings and teach new and more healthful ways to think and behave.​

What the Research Shows

The effectiveness of CBT is proven by several meta-analyses:

CBT proves to be effective in comparison with no-treatment, attention-placebo, and control conditions of usual care.

However, in Project MATCH, a large alcohol use disorder trial, clinically significant improvements were observed between the baseline and 15-month follow-up effect sizes, which were d = 1.46 days percentage abstinent and d = 1.61 drinks per drinking day.

By 15-month follow-up, 25 percent of outpatient subjects and 48 percent of aftercare subjects were abstinent.

CBT also had significant effect sizes on secondary outcome such as less severity of psychiatry and alcohol related consequences

.Combined with Medication

A meta-analysis of 30 studies observed a landmark that combined CBT and pharmacotherapy was more successful than the usual care and pharmacotherapy. The results indicate that pharmacotherapy and CBT or any other evidence-based therapy should be covered by the best practices as opposed to the normal clinical management or nonspecific counseling.

​Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

How It Works

DBT was originally used to treat borderline personality disorder but it has also been found to be very effective in substance use disorders especially when the lack of emotional regulation is the cause of addiction. DBT involves individual therapy, skills training group, phone coaching as well as therapist consultation teams.

Key Components

Key Components

DBT has four primary skills-based modules:

Mindfulness: Being present without judgment

Distress Tolerance: Thermometer crisis without making it worse

Emotion Regulation: Understanding and coping with strong feelings

Interpersonal Effectiveness- Relationship management with regards to need fulfilment.

These skills are especially effective for people engaging in self medication with substances to manage distressing emotions, trauma, or relationship problems.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)

MET is a short session focused counseling model aimed at increasing intrinsic motivation to change. Instead of forcing change, therapists assist people in trying on and overcoming the ambivalence regarding substance use. Empirical evidence has supported MET as much as CBT, and meta-analyses have revealed no difference between CBT and MET, when they are used together with the drug treatment.​

Contingency Management (CM)

Contingency Management applies positive reinforcement, which are normally vouchers or prizes, to motivate abstinence and attendance of treatment. Studies indicate that CM might possess certain benefits compared to other behavioral interventions, and there is especially robust evidence of CM in the context of stimulant use disorders in which there is a lack of pharmacological choices.​

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT also teaches people to take uncomfortable thoughts and feelings instead of struggling with them and make behavior changes which are in line with their personal values. More recent studies indicate that ACT is effective in promoting short-term abstinence and, in the long run, it is not less effective than the rest of empirically proven therapies.​

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)

Although it is technically a pharmacological method, in conjunction with behavioral therapies MAT is an evidence-based practice. MAT consists of the FDA-approved drugs and counseling to manage substance use disorders. The combination is more efficient than either of the approaches as it helps to reduce withdrawal symptoms, cravings, and the risk of relapse and increases the rates of employment, decreases criminal activity.​

Family Therapy Approaches

There is an increasing literature on the topic of family treatment of addiction. Family therapy resolves the root causes behind the addiction such as communication, emotional and family problems. When families are all involved in it, the level of abstinence and overall functioning is enhanced. Families can be particularly treated with family approaches when a person has multiple addictions or history of relapse.​

12-Step Facilitation

Although it is not a therapy as such, 12-Step Facilitation is a well-organized process which assists people to relate to mutual support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Its effectiveness has been supported by research especially in the development of long-term recovery networks.

The Bottom Line: No Single "Best" Therapy

This is the vital discovery of decades of research: used with pharmacotherapy, CBT does not outperform other evidence-based therapies such as motivational enhancement therapy or contingency management. This implies that it is important to get evidenced based behavioral therapy-CBT or otherwise with pharmacological therapies when necessary.​

Behavioral interventions are normally in the small-to-moderate range of effect sizes, which is comparable to pharmacological interventions. Marginal effects, however, can be translated into something that can result in significant clinical benefits when we are referring to such outcomes as prevention of overdoses, decrease in substance use, better relationships, and quality of life.​

Choosing the Right Therapy

The evidence-based therapy which is right hinges upon:

Your particular drug and mode of use.

Mental comorbidities.

Individual preferences and learning patterns.

Treatment objectives (harm reduction vs. abstinence)

Resources and program provisions.

The most significant criterion is that your care is provided based on evidence, which has been tested with the help of strict research. Collaborate on the needs assessment with professional specialists in addiction who will advise therapies that are effective in your particular case.

Hope Through Science

Evidence-based therapies provide real hope since they are not based on speculation but rather they rely on what has been proven to work. CBT, DBT, MAT, family therapy, or a different validated therapy: all these treatments have facilitated millions of people to permanent recovery. The science is evident: evidence-based care can not only make recovery possible, but likely.

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