Support groups work to help individuals overcome substance abuse by increasing active coping responses, general quality of friendships, and support received from friends for abstaining, a new study shows.
"Many studies have tried to determine whether or not support and self-help groups are effective," says Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., head of the study. "But hardly any of studies have tried to analyze the mechanisms through which self-help groups exert their effects."
"Our goal was to specify the core processes through which support groups achieve important health outcomes so that knowledge might be generalized to other types of interventions," says Humphreys. The research is reported in the current issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
The study, conducted by scientists at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System and Stanford University School of Medicine, followed 2,337 veterans through the year after their discharge from inpatient treatment for substance abuse.
The participants became broadly involved in substance abuse support groups. A year after treatment, 84.4 percent of the men reported engaging in at least one of the following activities: attending Alcoholics/Cocaine or Narcotics Anonymous (AA/CA/NA) meetings, reading their literature, and attempting to incorporate at least some of "twelve steps" of these organizations into their lives.
"Individuals who became involved in self-help groups were less likely to use drugs and alcohol after treatment, developed richer friendship networks, and reported coping more effectively with stress," says Humphreys.
Friends' support for abstinence had much more powerful effect on the course of individuals' recovery than did general friendship quality, the scientists found, comparing the types of friendships generated within the self-help groups.
"If an individual's friends do not use substances, incentives to use them are removed from the social environment and positive social activities that don't involve substance abuse become more available," says Humphreys. "Drinking buddies who encourage you to drink are supplanted by friends who support abstinence efforts and provide encouragement for not using alcohol and drugs."
He added, "It seems that positive cycles develop among self-help group members over time, so that active coping, richer social networks, reduced stressors, and abstinence reinforce each other,"
Over 10 million American adults have attended Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and other substance abuse groups at some time in the course of their lives, recent surveys estimate. The number of Americans who seek help from such self-help groups is far greater than for those seeking professional services.
The new research leaves many points unanswered, however, the scientists say. It doesn't speak to the issues of spiritual change, which AA, CA and NA all emphasize. Nor does it deal with such potentially important factors as self-efficacy, morale, motivation and exposure to role models. That leaves plenty of room for future research into how support groups achieve their effectiveness, the scientists said.
The research was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Strategic Health Group and Health Services Research and Development Services.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine is the official peer-reviewed publication of The Society of Behavioral Medicine. For information about the journal, contact editor Arthur Stone, Ph.D., 516-632-8833.
Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org. For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, pchong@cfah.org 202-387-2829.
Journal
Annals of Behavioral Medicine