Integrative Meditation (IM) for Cocaine Addiction

Cocaine addiction continues to be a major problem in the U.S. with no FDA-approved pharmaceutical therapy. Finding effective treatment for cocaine addiction has long been a challenge to scientists and clinicians. Psychosocial interventions known as behavior therapies are the cornerstone of cocaine addiction treatment. However, there is an urgent need to further improve treatment outcomes, especially during early recovery and the protracted withdrawal phase of the treatment since many patients drop out or relapse during this phase. Our clinical experience and studies suggest that integrative Meditation (IM) helps reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms and increases treatment retention. The benefit of IM is well supported by tension-reduction theory and attention-networks framework in addiction treatment. The proposed study will implement a therapy development study to add IM as a self-care component to the current outpatient treatment of cocaine addiction to improve treatment outcomes.

The specific aims of the proposed study include: 1) to conduct a 12-week controlled trial with outpatient cocaine users to assess feasibility of recruiting and retaining cocaine addicts and to determine effect size of IM-augmented treatment in comparison with Nondirective Therapy (NT) control, with both groups receiving standard outpatient treatment as usual (TAU), thereby facilitating future larger scale therapy development study; and 2) to examine the changes in attention networks and negative mood as possible mediators of treatment outcomes between the two groups.