PSYCO105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Relapse Prevention, Motivational Interviewing, Harm Reduction
12 Jul 2018
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8. Describe how the methods and procedures encountered in this chapter can be applied
to preventing and treating health problems and to improving health and well-being (pp.
591-598).
- Motivational interviewing
- Motivational interviewing leads people to their own conclusions by asking questions that
focus on discrepancies between current state of affairs and individuals ideal self images,
desired behaviours and desire changes
- Focusing on these discrepancies motivate changes
- After session, counsellor helps client set specific goals and select from a menu of behavior-
change strategies
- Effective and low cost treatment approach for substance abusers
Multimodal treatment approaches
- Behaviour change packages when people are ready to make a change called →
multimodal treatments
- Multimodal treatments often include biological measures together with psychological
measures such as:
- Aversion therapy – undesired behavior is associated with an aversive stimulus such as
electric shock or a nausea-producing drug, in attempt to create a negative emotional
response to the currently pleasurable substance
- Relaxation and stress-management training – helps the person adapt to and deal with
stressful situations, procedure called mindfulness mediation is important tool in
treatment of addictive behaviours
- Self-monitoring procedures that help the person identify the antecedents and
consequences of the abuse behaviors
- Coping and social skills training for dealing with high-risk situations that trigger abuse
- Marital and family counselling to reduce conflicts and increase social support for
change
- and positive reinforcement procedures to strengthen change
- Research suggests that for example aversion therapy works with 65% success rate, but
less than 30 percent continue with long term maintenance
Relapse prevention
- Most relapses tended to occur after person had suffered lapse (a one-time “slip”) when
confronted with high risk situation
- Ex. Stressful events, interpersonal conflicts, social pressure to perform the undesirable
behavior and being in the company of other individuals using the substance and
experiencing negative emotions
