Abstract
Contemporary advances in addiction neuroscience have paralleled increasing interest in the ancient mental training practice of mindfulness meditation as a potential therapy for addiction. In the past decade, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been studied as a treatment for an array addictive behaviors, including drinking, smoking, opioid misuse, and use of illicit substances like cocaine and heroin. This article reviews current research evaluating MBIs as a treatment for addiction, with a focus on findings pertaining to clinical outcomes and biobehavioral mechanisms. Studies indicate that MBIs reduce substance misuse and craving by modulating cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological processes integral to self-regulation and reward processing. This integrative review provides the basis for manifold recommendations regarding the next wave of research needed to firmly establish the efficacy of MBIs and elucidate the mechanistic pathways by which these therapies ameliorate addiction. Issues pertaining to MBI treatment optimization and sequencing, dissemination and implementation, dose–response relationships, and research rigor and reproducibility are discussed.
Highlights
Advances in biobehavioral science occurring over the past several decades have made significant headway in elucidating mechanisms that undergird addictive behavior
This interest was sparked by the successful integration of mindfulness techniques into secularlized behavioral intervention programs, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) [2] and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) [3]
The study of mindfulness as a treatment for stress and chronic pain is more than 30 years old, and researchers have investigated mindfulness as a treatment for depression for more than two decades, yet it is only in the past 10 years that research on mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for addiction has proliferated
Summary
Advances in biobehavioral science occurring over the past several decades have made significant headway in elucidating mechanisms that undergird addictive behavior This large body of research suggests that addiction is best regarded as a cycle of compulsive substance use subserved by dysregulation in neural circuitry governing motivation and hedonic experience, habit behavior, and executive function [1]. Contemporary developments in addiction neuroscience have been paralleled by increasing interest in the age-old mental training practice of mindfulness meditation as a potential treatment for addictive behavior. This interest was sparked by the successful integration of mindfulness techniques into secularlized behavioral intervention programs, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) [2] and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) [3].
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