ABSTRACT
Although a large number of controlled studies have investigated the effectiveness of a variety of psychological interventions and medications, few of this evidence is currently used in the treatment of substance-abusing patients (Fals-Stewart & Birchler, 2002a; Foreman, Bovasso, & Woody, 2001; McGovern, Fox, Xie, & Drake, 2004). In this chapter the research into the effects of treatments for substance abuse and dependence will be discussed. The emphasis will be on those psychological interventions and pharmacotherapies that have shown to be evidence-based in a series of controlled clinical trials. For that reason, a number of psychological interventions that are still used in the treatment of substance abuse, including psychodynamic therapy, experientially oriented therapies, and system-theoretically based approaches, will not be discussed here, given that the effectiveness of these interventions has not been established in a number of controlled clinical trials. On the whole, successful interventions that appear to be targeted at substance abuse and testable psychodynamic or experientially oriented protocols of this kind have not yet been developed.
