mindfulness centered regulation
Neurocognitive Model of Mindfulness-Centereted Regulation (Garland, Froeliger, & Howard, 2014)

My colleagues Brett Froeliger, Matthew Howard, and I recently authored an invited conceptual review paper (FREE TO DOWNLOAD) for a special issue of Frontiers in Psychiatry: Addictive Disorders and Behavioral Dyscontrol. Prominent neuroscience models suggest that addictive behavior occurs when environmental stressors and drug-relevant cues activate a cycle of cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological mechanisms, including dysregulated interactions between bottom-up and top-down neural processes, that compel the user to seek out and use drugs. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) target pathogenic mechanisms of the risk chain linking stress and addiction. This review describes how MBIs may target neurocognitive mechanisms of addiction at the attention-appraisal-emotion interface. Empirical evidence is presented suggesting that MBIs ameliorate addiction by enhancing cognitive regulation of a number of key processes, including: clarifying cognitive appraisal and modulating negative emotions to reduce perseverative cognition and emotional arousal; enhancing metacognitive awareness to regulate drug-use action schema and decrease addiction attentional bias; promoting extinction learning to uncouple drug-use triggers from conditioned appetitive responses; reducing cue-reactivity and increasing cognitive control over craving; attenuating physiological stress reactivity through parasympathetic activation; and increasing savoring to restore natural reward processing. Treatment and research implications of our neurocognitive framework are presented. We conclude by offering a temporally sequenced description of neurocognitive processes targeted by MBIs through a hypothetical case study. Our neurocognitive framework has implications for the optimization of addiction treatment with MBIs.

The conceptual framework outlined in this paper clarifies and contextualizes the recent results from our randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement as a treatment for prescription opioid misuse and chronic pain.

7 thoughts on “New Paper Accepted for Publication: Mindfulness Training Targets Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Addiction at the Attention-Appraisal-Emotion Interface

  1. Hmm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll
    just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your
    blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still
    new to everything. Do you have any tips for rookie blog writers?

    I’d certainly appreciate it.

  2. You can certainly see your enthusiasm within the work you write.
    The world hopes for even more passionate writers
    such as you who are not afraid to mention how they believe.

    Always folllow your heart.

  3. Hello there I am so delighted I found your webpage, I really found you by error,
    while I was searching on Askjeeve for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say
    cheers for a marvelous post and a all round interesting blog (I also
    love the theme/design), I don’t have time to browse it
    all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also
    added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back
    to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the great
    work.

  4. I blg often and I genuinely appreciate your information. This great article has
    trulyy ppeaked mmy interest. I’m going tto bookmark your site and keep checking for new information abgout once per week.
    I subscribed to your RSS feed as well.

  5. Great site you have here but I was curious about if you knew of
    any discussion boards that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
    I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get opinions from other
    knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest. If
    you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thanks a lot!

Leave a Reply