Relapse Prevention Therapy

Addiction is medically defined as a chronic brain disease in which an individual compulsively uses drugs, often times leading to health problems, as well as self-destructive and harmful behaviors (“The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction,” n.d.). Drug addiction is considered a brain disease because these substances can cause changes to the brain’s normal structure and functioning of neurotransmitters, or chemical messengers. Drugs like marijuana and heroin mimic the structure of these neurotransmitters, causing abnormal signals to be sent out. Other drugs like cocaine disrupt the regulation of neurotransmitter signaling, causing certain signals to be amplified while others are muted, thereby altering the way the brain communicates with the body (“Understanding Addiction,” n.d.). The National Institute on Drug Abuse has reported that drug addiction causes nearly an annual loss of $700 billion in terms of crime, loss of productivity, and health care costs. There are also enormous non-monetary losses that drug abuse and addiction leads to such as the effects on family members and relationships, and child and …show more content…
Alan Marlett from the Department of Psychology Addiction Behaviors Research Center of University of Washington in 2002 (EBP Substance Use, n.d). RPT is a specific type of CBT that was initially developed as a psychosocial therapy for alcohol addiction, but later adapted for cocaine addiction. This therapy treats the development of addiction as a learning process, and the treatment itself is geared towards correcting these problematic learned behaviors. RPT is designed to equip individuals with more effective coping strategies that can be applied to prevent relapses. Such strategies include improved self-control, self-monitoring of cravings, recognizing high risk situations and understanding how to avoid these situations (Marlett et. al,