Religious Life of Narcotic Addicts

Client Spirituality and Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes

“…The spiritual scales representing the second and third dimensions were more important in treatment outcomes than the practice or religiosity dimensions, which tend to contradict the available literature citing the importance of religiosity as a protective factor for substance use in the general population (Cancellaro et al, 1982;Miller, 1998).…”

“…It was expected that there would be some relationship between pretest spirituality and beginning outcomes, particularly in severity of use or treatment history, as many of the clients experienced many years dealing with treatment and participation in AA, which might influence their patterns of use. Furthermore, religiosity has been shown to be a protective factor for substance use, for both initiation and continuation of use in extant studies (Cancellaro et al, 1982;Miller, 1998). There was little evidence of such an influence in this sample.…”

“…The literature tends to report a negative association between religiosity and substance use both in terms of initiation and continuation of use, and some evidence suggests that inclusion of religious principles significantly contributes to positive treatment outcomes (Connors, Tonigan, & Miller, 1996;Cancellaro, Larson, & Wilson, 1982;Koenig, George, Meador, Blazer, & Ford, 1994). Such a position is hardly universal, as other results report that client religiosity demonstrates little impact on treatment outcomes (Richard, Bell, & Carlson, 2000;Zucker, Austin, Fair, & Branchey, 1987).…”

An Empirical Exploration of Spirituality and Religiousness in Addiction Treatment

“…Also of note was the result that the least religious clients were more likely to change their attitude concerning the harmful effects of alcohol during the course of treatment (Zucker, Austin, Fair & Branchey, 1987). There is, additionally, some evidence to support the notion that individuals participating in treatment may be less involved in religion than those without addiction problems (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Fetzer Institute, 1999;Cancellaro, Larson & Wilson, 1982;Larson & Wilson, 1980;Miller, 1998). This finding could be significant in that a large portion of treatment in United States espouses the Alcoholics Anonymous model in treating addictions (Miller, 1997).…”

“…Given the intricate connection of the two it is surprising that there is relatively little known about the role that spirituality plays in the addiction process in general and, specifically, the treatment of addictions. The literature tends to report a general negative association between religiosity and substance use (Connors, Tonigan & Miller, 1996;Cancellaro, Larson & Wilson, 1982;Koenig, George, Meador, Blazer & Ford, 1994;Miller, 1998). This relationship exists tenuously, however, as some studies have shown that there is little effect of religion on positive substance use outcomes (Richard, Bell & Carlson, 2000).…”