Research on MORE Covered by NIDA: Prescription Opioid Misuse Treatment Leverages Mindfulness To Amplify Natural Rewards

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) covered a recently published study of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) on their NIDA Notes page. NIDA Notes has provided in-depth coverage of research findings on drug abuse and addiction for the past 25 years. Each month, 2-4 research articles from the entirety of addiction science are covered on NIDA’s webpage, so this is great recognition for the MORE research program.

We previously demonstrated that MORE can reduce chronic pain patients’ misuse of opioids (Garland et al., 2014, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology). Now, a follow-up analysis of data from that study found these reductions in opioid misuse to be associated with an increase in patients’ cardiac-autonomic responsiveness to cues for natural rewards relative to cues for drug rewards (Garland et al., 2017, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics). This is one of the most important discoveries I have made in the past decade, and suggests that MORE may reduce risk for opioid misuse by increasing physiological sensitivity to natural rewards. Thus, using mindfulness to amplify savoring of natural, healthy pleasures and promote meaning in life may be an antidote to opioid misuse, a condition that has been called a “disease of despair.”