Effectiveness of the Non-Pharmacological Rehabilitation Interventions on Abstinence of Psycho-Active Substance Abuse: A Systematic Review

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.