Zeitschrift für Suchtforschung und -therapie

Abstrakt

Integrated Psychosocial Treatment Programme for Substance Abusers: Relapse Prevention and Social Anxiety Diminution: A systematic Review of Published Literature

Prem Kumar Shanmugam and Rasaiah Munidasa Winslow

This review presents a systematic evaluation of the literature of psychosocial treatment programmes for substance abusers published from 1995 to 2010. It identifies the active ingredients of treatment and evaluation of outcomes. For the purpose of the study, two questions were posed: (i) Do psychosocial treatment programmes prevent relapses? (ii) Do psychosocial treatment programmes prevent relapses and reduce social anxiety? A systematic and comprehensive search was conducted by using Econ Lit with EBSCOHOST, ERIC, PsycARTICLES, PSYCCRITIQUES and PsycINFO. Initial findings revealed only three directly related articles for the last 10 years and extending the search to 1995 provided for a more concise pool of studies. Substance dependency is a specialized area of study and it was necessary to justify the search terminologies. To derive a comprehensive and substantive review, it was necessary to include and also exclude certain components from the search further. This review presents the findings and a summary of psychosocial treatment programmes based on the research questions posed.