Abstract:
Background: Nearly 75% of individuals who completed existing rehabilitation programmes in
Sri Lanka reported relapses of substance use disorder. The abundance of effective Non pharmacological interventions to treat substance abuse disorder has solidified globally.
Improving the prevailing treatment systems would undoubtedly benefit not only affected
individuals but also their families and society.
Objective: To explore existing effective non-pharmacological rehabilitation interventions on
the abstinence of substance abuse disorders
Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed,
HINARI, Google Scholar and the Cochrane databases were systematically searched to identify
articles and duplications were removed using EndNote. Topics and abstracts of the articles
were screened for eligibility. Articles of empirical studies on non-pharmacological
rehabilitation interventions which were published in peer-reviewed journals during 2015-2020,
written in English, were included and articles on alcohol and smoking cessation and
rehabilitation interventions for children (<18 years) were excluded from the review. Full
papers were then assessed against eligibility criteria. Quality appraisal and data extraction of
the selected articles were performed by two independent reviewers and discrepancies were
discussed with another independent reviewer to reach consensus.
Results: Through the comprehensive database search, 307 articles were identified. After
screening the topics and abstracts of the articles and assessing the relevant full texts for
eligibility, 22 articles of the empirical studies were included in the systematic review.
Vigorous regular exercise, mindfulness-based relapse prevention, therapeutic alliance in
substance use disorder (Narcotics Anonymous), multi-dimensional family therapy, distress
tolerance treatment, neurobehavioral treatment, therapeutic workplace, patients are paid to
perform jobs or to participate in job training, web-based behavioral treatment (therapeutic
education system), and video game-based exercise programs were found to be significantly
effective on abstinence of substance abuse.
Conclusions: There were strong empirical evidence of effective non-pharmacological
rehabilitation interventions and the combination of treatment interventions are thought to be
more effective against substance abuse.