Florida Atlantic: Controlling Cravings

Although individuals with substance use disorder use outpatient support services and resources, relapse rates are as high as 70 percent, indicating a need for more treatment modalities.

Addiction cravings are maintained and heightened by sensory imagery stored in memories, with more vivid imagery predicting higher craving intensity. A new Florida Atlantic University pilot study is showing promise in treating addiction cravings by combining eye movements and guided instructions to process memories.

For the study, Florida Atlantic researchers employed Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), proven to be effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions, to transform dysfunctional memories stored in the brain through processing and integration. Addiction memory, assumed to be episodic, resembles the maladaptive traumatic memory formation commonly seen in PTSD. Until now, research exploring this method for substance use disorder has been sparse.

Researchers focused on cravings, perseverative thoughts (repetitive negative thinking), and irrational cognitions about the substance of choice – such as alcohol or opiates, including heroin and morphine. They tested addictionfocused EMDR with and without cognitive behavioral therapy, a psycho-social intervention aimed to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions including depression and anxiety disorders. This method accesses trauma events in very specific ways to reprocess what the individual remembers from the negative event to "repair" the mental injury from that memory.

"While the purpose of our pilot study was to test addiction-focused EMDR on chemical addiction cravings, our findings indicate that it also can be highly effective with issues that are not chemical but rather compulsory in nature, such as internet addiction and gambling," said JuYoung Park, Ph.D., professor in the Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work in Florida Atlantic’s College of Social Work and Criminal Justice. "Importantly, this therapy is a valuable add-on to current addiction treatment to address memories that drive addiction cravings, which also impacts maladaptive thought patterns associated with relapse."

Individuals with substance use disorder are encouraged to attend inpatient treatment that employs group therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, along with pharmacological options such as anti-craving drugs. As perseverative thoughts were found to be an important predictor of relapse, the researchers said findings from their study show that pairing addiction-focused EMDR with cognitive behavioral therapy could decrease relapse rates and help people with substance use disorder to maintain long-term recovery in inpatient or even outpatient treatment centers.