Postdoctoral Fellow Recovery Research Institute, Center for Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts
This session will review models of addiction and propose a more central role for the context as a determinant of behavior in addiction and recovery. Models of addiction, though reductive in nature, are communicated broadly to the public and impact perceptions of addiction, scientific priorities, clinical practice, and policy decisions. Brain disease, moral, and choice models account for some, but not all, of the phenomenology of addiction, and are mechanistically limited in scope. This session will outline contextual models of addiction and recovery, review empirical evidence supporting the role of context, and outline potential benefits of a contextual model at the level of the individual and society in the areas of science, clinical practice, and policy.
Learning Objectives:
Learners will be able to:
Compare and contrast moral, brain-centric, choice, and contextual models of addiction.
Discuss empirical studies demonstrating an influence of the context on recovery behaviors.
Apply potential benefits of a contextual framing to scientific endeavors, clinical practice, and policy.
