The Angry Patient: An Intervention for Managing Anger in Substance Abuse Treatment

Abstract

Patients who have problems controlling anger and aggression can pose special problems for substance abuse treatment providers. Levels of anger and violence are higher in substance abusers than in the general population. Although anger management treatments have been studied extensively, few treatments have been developed and studied with substance abusers. In this article, we evaluated an anger management treatment based on Novaco's (1983) cognitive-behavioral stress inoculation procedures. The treatment was delivered as individual sessions and evaluated in a study of six substance abuse patients with a single-subject multiple-baseline design. Preliminary findings suggest that the treatment is effective for substance abuse patients and that this mode of treatment should be explored further.

Keywords:

• anger management
• single subject research
• substance abuse
• treatment