Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

T his presentation will review selected research experiments in substance abuse, correlated with current treatment approaches in the field. The original research on addiction focused on conditioned responses toward addictive substances. Many early experiments involving rats and monkeys indicated that the physiological compulsion toward addiction was so pervasive that the subjects would undergo self-inflicted nutritional deprivation, endure physical harm and stimulate premature death in the pursuit of substances. Treatment that evolved from these experiments focused on reconditioning those physiological responsesand medical approaches to alter these physiological responses to the substance. Later research focused on neurological networks and biological responses that evolve when maternal attachment or nurturing environments are provided or restricted and their relationship to predispositions toward addition.As early as the 60s experiments began to show the effect of enriched and non-enriched environments on predilections toward addiction. Addiction began to be seen as a complex reaction to surrounding circumstances influenced by both past and present environments. This view led to recovery approaches that rely more on clinical models that involve cognitive restructuring, communication, social development, and opportunities for enriched environments. This presentation will review the underlying social models in these experiments, correlating them with current trends in substance abuse treatment. Cognitive, behavioral and medical approaches, group therapy, family therapy, psychodynamic approaches, and 12 stepmodels will be explored

Biography

Donna Miller has been a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist since 1991, both as a private practitioner and working within the community in the field of addiction. Her education is form UCLA, Antioch University and Pepperdine University where she received her MA in Counseling Psychology. Since 1997 Ms. Miller has been the Director of the Chabad Residential Treatment Center, where she brought her clinical background in Adult Moral Development, Family Systems and addiction, developing a comprehensive approach to Substance abuse. She has written articles and lectures on addiction, family, and the integration of spirituality toward recovery. Her most recent presentations have been on the integration of neurobiological research and treatment modalities