Faculty Bibliography

Co-occurring mental illness and addiction is very common and results in worse treatment outcomes compared to singly diagnosed addicted individuals. Integrated treatment for co-occurring disorders is associated with better treatment outcomes; however there is a wide range of what is included in integrated treatment. Due to patient and staff interests, integrated treatment often includes complementary and alternative therapies, including music and art therapy. There is a need to study how these approaches effect treatment engagement, retention, and outcome. This study was a prospective naturalistic non-randomized pilot study without a control group that sought to evaluate how participation in a music therapy program affected treatment outcomes for individuals with co-occurring mental illness and addiction. In summary, music therapy appears to be a novel motivational tool in a severely impaired inpatient sample of patients with co-occurring disorders. Future studies of music therapy in integrated co-occurring disorder setting should include a control group

Medical care has long been associated with religion and spirituality, but in recent years a trend has arisen to introduce diverse spiritually oriented approaches in the context of empirically grounded practice. This article reviews the application of these approaches in contemporary medical practice. It highlights the relative utility of such applications, the use of spiritual assessment of the patient, and the role of the clergy and nursing in introducing spirituality into the clinical setting. It then presents findings from a program developed by the authors to employ spiritual support groups in the general hospital in order to aid patients in coping with illness, and to develop among them a more positive identification with their treatment providers.

This study assesses medical students' use of and attitudes towards club drugs, classified as 'Generation I' (i.e., cocaine and lysergic acid diethylamide), and 'Generation II' (i.e., methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA], ketamine, gamma hydroxybutyrate, methamphetamine, rohypnol, dextromethorphan) club drugs based on their initial widespread use in club settings. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 340 medical students. The prevalence of any club drug use was 16.8%, with MDMA (11.8%) and cocaine (5.9%) the most commonly used. Results discussed also include the relationship of age and gender to having ever used club drugs and to their attitudes regarding use. Additionally, the study identifies differences in patterns of use and attitudes toward Generation I versus Generation II club drugs based on age, gender, and participants' prior club drug use. Findings are compared to those of earlier studies about medical students and those in a similar age group in the general population

This chapter is directed at defining the nature of spirituality and its relationship to empirical research and clinical practice. A preliminary understanding of the spiritual experience can be achieved on the basis of diverse theoretical and empirically grounded sources, which will be delineated: namely, physiology, psychology, and cross-cultural sources. Furthermore, the impact of spirituality on mental health and addiction in different cultural and clinical settings is explicated regarding both beneficial and compromising outcomes. Illustrations of its application in addiction and general psychiatry are given: in meditative practices, Alcoholics Anonymous, and treatment programs for addiction singly and comorbid with major mental illness. Given its prominence in Alcoholics Anonymous and related Twelve-Step groups, spirituality plays an important role in the rehabilitation of many substance-dependent people. The issue of spirituality, however, is prominent within contemporary culture as well in the form of theistic orientation, as evidenced in a probability sampling of American adults, among whom 95% of respondents reply positively when asked if they believe in 'God or a universal spirit.' Responses to a follow-up on this question suggest that this belief affects the daily lives of the majority (51%) of those sampled, as they indicated that they had talked to someone about God or some aspect of their faith or spirituality within the previous 24 h (Gallup, 2002)