Motivation for Change and Alcoholism Treatment.pdfVIP

Motivation for Change and Alcoholism Treatment Carlo C. DiClemente, Ph.D., Lori E. Bellino, M.Ed., and Tara M. Neavins, M.S. Motivation plays an important role in alcoholism treatment by influencing patients to seek, complete, and comply with treatment as well as make successful long-term changes in their drinking. Both alcohol-abusing and alcohol-dependent people can be classified into different “stages of change” in terms of their readiness to alter their drinking behavior. Consequently, researchers have had to consider more seriously the role of motivation in the treatment of and recovery from substance abuse and to incorporate motivational enhancement strategies into treatment programs. KEY WORDS: motivation; addiction care; stages of change; AODD (alcohol and other drug dependence) recovery; treatment; AOD (alcohol and other drug) use behavior; behavioral change; AODU (alcohol and other drug use) treatment method; motivational interviewing; intervention; patient treatment matching; literature review otivation is an important first making changes in one’s behavior), and 1990) have demonstrated that people step toward any action or maintenance (i.e., changing one’s lifestyle with alcohol and other drug problems Mchange in behavior. Sayings to maintain new behavior)—offer a new who seek or participate in treatment such as “You can lead a horse to water, perspective on motivation and the process differ significantly in their levels of but you can’t make it drink” reflect the of behavior change (DiClemente and motivation to change. Using an alcohol fact that people generally will not perform Prochaska 1998; Prochaska et al. 1992). version of the University of Rhode desired behaviors unless or unt