Research Project Abstracts

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program for Substance Abusers

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
Steven Rosenzweig, MD
Steven.Rosenzweig@jefferson.edu

The term mindfulness means awareness. Mindfulness meditation is the effort to pay fuller attention to moment-to-moment experience in a non-judgmental way. The aim is to cultivate stable awareness that is non-reactive. Mindfulness is associated with greater mental clarity, calmness and physical relaxation. In the setting of recovery, this learned regulation of attention may lead to insight and new positive responses to external stressors. It promotes early awareness of discomfort or craving before these escalate into harmful behaviors. The practice of mindfulness has therefore the potential to prevent relapse through strengthening patients' inherent cognitive resources, and enhancing their repertoire of positive behaviors. Mindfulness also can diminish the severity of compounding conditions such as anxiety and panic, depression, physical pain, and chronic medical symptoms, which may push individuals toward relapse.