Date
5-25-2023
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)
Chair
Thomas Hudgins
Keywords
precontemplation, residential tx centers, opioids, Motivational interview, Cognitive Therapy, addiction, recovery, interventions, residential, treatment, disorders
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
White, Victor, "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Strategies and Adult Opioid Abuse: A Phenomenological Study of Precontemplation to Contemplation Stage in Residential Treatment Programs" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4498.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4498
Abstract
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for drug addiction is an effective treatment strategy, as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies and treatment strategies. This phenomenological qualitative study described the struggles of adults diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) and their experiences with how CBT strategies moved them to the contemplation stage of change in a residential treatment program. In the contemplation of change stage, the adults acknowledged that their opioid addiction behaviors are problems that need to be addressed, beginning with motivational interviewing. Utilizing the Cycle of Change Model (Prochaska and DiClemente), the Cognitive-Behavioral Theory (Aaron Beck), the Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Icek Ajzen), this study sought to uncover the recovery process of patients with opioid addictions and analyzed the factors that influenced their addictions and behavior changes in CBT treatment. Interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect qualitative data, and thematic analysis was applied to develop a model to understand the effectiveness of CBT and persistence in recovery from opioid addiction. This model, derived from the theory of planned behavior, was grounded in the qualitative data and was significant in understanding the phenomenon of change, and how the change process was integrated into the lives of people addicted to opioids. Specifically, the model reflected the effectiveness of CBT in moving adults struggling with opioid addiction from the precontemplation stage of change where they did not see or acknowledge opioid addiction as a problem, to the contemplation stage of change where they were aware and acknowledged that their addictive behaviors may be problematic.
