ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on landmark reviews of the research on the treatment of those with substance use disorders that suggest many useful understandings about these difficulties and guidelines for treatment. Highlighting the role that research can play in showing how realities can differ from commonly held beliefs, several of these findings and guidelines contrast with long-held myths about how the treatment of those with substance use disorders is best conducted. The researchers combed through hundreds of studies to distinguish which assumptions about how to treat substance abuse disorders are supported by research and which are empirically unfounded. The research strongly indicates that therapeutic alliances, whether between client and therapist or client and group, are potent curative factors in treatment. Three newer approaches to addiction treatment have accompanied this psychophysiological understanding of the problem. The first is meditation and mindfulness-based treatment. The second approach is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The third new treatment for addiction is neurofeedback.
