Addiction problems are deeply rooted in our modern society. An issue that spans beyond the scope of the individual, addiction affects families as well as society. Conventional treatment methods, such as the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program, have proven effective for many, but could new methods of treatment soon take the spotlight?

Alan Marlatt, professor of psychology at the University of Washington and director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center, has found that meditation can be an effective coping skill to address addiction problems. Marlatt covers the subject in the new two-part program “Addiction and the Mind,” part of the 2009 Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lectures series, debuting on UWTV this month.

“This new program, Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention, started about two years ago and our first clinical outcome study demonstrated that meditation effectively reduces relapse rates and substance use,” said Marlatt.

“Meditation helps because it allows you to take a couple moments. For instance, SOBER is a brief momentary meditation that you do when you are on the verge of relapse,” said Marlatt. “SOBER is an acronym that stands for S: stop what you’re doing, O: observe how you’re feeling, B: focus on your breath as a way of providing an anchor, E: expand your awareness of the situation you’re in – for instance, if you use drugs, how that will affect you and other people? – and R: respond mindfully. You have a choice whether you use or not.”

Alan Marlatt, professor of psychology at the University of Washington and director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center.

The genesis of utilizing meditation as treatment actually originates from Carl Jung, one of the world’s most influential psychiatrists.

“Carl Jung had a lot to do with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which was formed in the 1940s and he said that a lot of addicts are like frustrated mystics looking for more of a spiritual approach rather than for spirits in a bottle,” said Marlatt.

Jung’s emphasis of spirituality in treatment is also incorporated into the treatment course used in AA.

“The 12-step program is a spiritual approach that tries to take people away from the spirits of a bottle,” said Marlatt. “It works for a lot of people, but there are some people who are looking for something like meditation because they feel AA is not working for them.”

Though Jung provided the foundation for mindfulness, that is, the idea of being aware of one’s surroundings, consequences and choices, a particular book was the catalyst for Marlatt’s research and subsequent program.

“There was a book called 'Positive Addiction' by William Glasser, which said that people with addictions are looking for something else that will provide relaxation and make themselves feel better, something like meditation or exercise,” said Marlatt. “He was suggesting that these things could be very helpful, so we did research to support what he said, although that research was just for college students with more acute addiction problems.”

The research was conducted at the University of Washington in the 1980s and was designed for college students who were drinking heavily.

“The research involved looking at college students who are heavy binge drinkers,” said Marlatt. “We used studies where we asked students to do meditation and aerobic exercises while keeping track of their drinking. We found that both led to significant decreases in student drinking.”

Other research sprang from this notion of mindfulness which furthered Marlatt’s belief that meditation could be applied to addiction problems.

“Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts did this for people with chronic pain problems who didn’t respond to other types of treatment,” said Marlatt. “He started Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 30 years ago and now it’s being used at hundreds of hospitals across the nation and teaching them meditation such as yoga.

“There is also Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression. This is for people who have been through treatment but keep having relapse problems,” said Marlatt. “And by teaching them mindfulness, there were significant reduction rates in relapses so we thought ‘wow, why don’t we develop something similar for addiction?’”

Marlatt’s eight-week program involves group meetings once a week for two hours. During those two-hour meetings, patients practice a variety of meditation skills, such as breathing meditations or body scan meditations which focus on the physical sensations of the body often associated with cravings for drugs.

Signs show that mindfulness meditation is gaining momentum.

“Trying to get people off automatic pilot is what we’re trying to accomplish because people are completely in their habits,” said Marlatt. “These are very brief meditations, but we basically found that people who took the course found it very helpful.”

According to Marlatt, meditation can have two main positive effects on urges and cravings that addicts often experience.

“One effect is relaxing in terms of stress management,” said Marlatt. “Stress is a big trigger for relapse; people who are upset are more likely to go back to using cocaine or what they were using before, but if they can find another way to deal with stress that’s very helpful.”

“The second effect involves the notion that often addicts accept urges and cravings thinking they can’t get rid of them. When we add meditation onto more traditional relapse prevention, we are getting even better results,” said Marlatt.

Signs show that mindfulness meditation is gaining momentum.

“I was in Scandinavia for three weeks and there is a lot of interest in Norway, Denmark and Sweden,” said Marlatt. “There are Portland VA (Veteran’s Affairs) programs that are using our program as well as programs down in California. Our treatment manual will be published by December 2009 and once that becomes published, more people will know about it and it just gets the word out so people contact us about further information.”

Mindfulness meditation provides an alternative for those who find that traditional methods of treatment are not working.

“Given that out of every 10 people who have a serious alcohol or drug problem, only one is in treatment and going to AA, the rest of them don’t really know what’s available,” said Marlatt. “Ours is only one of the different approaches. Try the mindfulness meditation; if it doesn’t work, don’t give up, and keep trying until you find something that works for you.”