About this Research Topic
People with substance use disorders (also referred to as people who use drugs (PWUD)) have always been a health concern for different communities worldwide. It is not so far from the truth to claim that reductivist approaches in substance use treatment underestimate the treatment process. Using the word 'recovery' instead of 'treatment' can focus our attention on more holistic approaches for this population.
The mental and physical health of PWUD are the goals of the recovery process, and both the person’s family and the wider community play a crucial role. People in recovery should not be considered simply as being either drug users or non-drug users. Instead, PWUD are in the recovery process if they are trying to be healthier, and taking this view, we can say that harm reduction services are the first steps in this recovery process. Through abstinence-oriented harm reduction services, we can help PWUD to remain healthy whilst stepping forward towards treatment. Family members are also important players in the recovery process, even though in many modalities, especially in compulsory treatment and even in other, more evidence-based modalities, they may not be considered as one of the main target groups due to budgets or cultural barriers such as stigma and discrimination toward PWUD. Important recent findings, although preliminary, show changes in the brains of co-dependent family members that are similar to those changes seen in the brains of PWUD, which shows the crucial role of the family in the recovery process.
Treatment should be an integrated complex of remoralization (e.g., giving hope), remediation (the use of evidence-based interventions), rehabilitation in different domains (such as at work, at home, with significant relations), and finally, recovery.
The aim of this Research Topic is to collate evidence for the whole continuum of addiction. We welcome Original Research articles, Systematic Reviews, Case Studies, and Meta-analyses on the following topics:
• substance-oriented recovery and harm reduction services, demonstrating the importance of the focus different needs of PWUD with different types of substances
• family-based recovery interventions
• co-dependency as a challenging situation in the recovery process, past, present, and future
• mobile-based recovery and harm reduction interventions
• new evidence-based treatment interventions.
The mental and physical health of PWUD are the goals of the recovery process, and both the person’s family and the wider community play a crucial role. People in recovery should not be considered simply as being either drug users or non-drug users. Instead, PWUD are in the recovery process if they are trying to be healthier, and taking this view, we can say that harm reduction services are the first steps in this recovery process. Through abstinence-oriented harm reduction services, we can help PWUD to remain healthy whilst stepping forward towards treatment. Family members are also important players in the recovery process, even though in many modalities, especially in compulsory treatment and even in other, more evidence-based modalities, they may not be considered as one of the main target groups due to budgets or cultural barriers such as stigma and discrimination toward PWUD. Important recent findings, although preliminary, show changes in the brains of co-dependent family members that are similar to those changes seen in the brains of PWUD, which shows the crucial role of the family in the recovery process.
Treatment should be an integrated complex of remoralization (e.g., giving hope), remediation (the use of evidence-based interventions), rehabilitation in different domains (such as at work, at home, with significant relations), and finally, recovery.
The aim of this Research Topic is to collate evidence for the whole continuum of addiction. We welcome Original Research articles, Systematic Reviews, Case Studies, and Meta-analyses on the following topics:
• substance-oriented recovery and harm reduction services, demonstrating the importance of the focus different needs of PWUD with different types of substances
• family-based recovery interventions
• co-dependency as a challenging situation in the recovery process, past, present, and future
• mobile-based recovery and harm reduction interventions
• new evidence-based treatment interventions.
Keywords: substance-oriented recovery, harm reduction services, family-based recovery interventions, addiction
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
