An Empirical Exploration of Spirituality and Religiousness in Addiction Treatment

Abstract

There is relatively little known about the relationship between spirituality and religiosity and substance abuse treatment. The literature tends to be divided concerning the scope and nature of the role of spirituality and religion in treatment for addictions. This study compared the clients of three different programs in a pretest-posttest design to determine if spirituality and religiosity changed significantly throughout the course of treatment. The results demonstrated little change in treatment though there were significant differences between the different treatment modalities.

Key Words:

• Substance abuse
• religiosity
• spirituality
• substance abuse treatment
• spiritual change