300 - Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement: An Evidence-Based, Neuroscience-Informed Therapy for Addiction, Stress, and Pain

Session Description: Half of all people with a substance use disorder (SUD) have chronic pain, and more than a third have a co-occurring psychiatric disorder. Unfortunately, there are few evidence-based therapies that can simultaneously treat this complex comorbidity. To meet this need, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) was generated through a decade-long treatment development process funded by the National Institutes of Health. Rooted in affective neuroscience, MORE unites mindfulness training, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and principles from positive psychology into an integrative therapy designed to target addiction, stress, and pain. This session will detail the theory underlying MORE, research data demonstrating MORE's effectiveness, and unique clinical skills integral to this novel treatment. MORE has been tested in 11 clinical trials funded by more than $40 million in federal research grants. In the largest trial of MORE (250 patients with opioid misuse/OUD), MORE decreased opioid misuse by 45% by 9-month follow-up, more than doubling the effect of standard therapy. MORE also significantly decreased chronic pain, distress, depression, and PTSD. Neuroscience shows that MORE decreases the extent to which the brain is triggered by drug cues, while increasing brain responses to natural, healthy rewards. MORE should now be disseminated by behavioral health providers around the nation. Attendees will learn several highly effective, evidence-based techniques that can be used to: decrease drug craving and physical pain; regulate negative emotions and trauma reactions; and increase positive emotions and the sense of reward and motivation. Attendees will also learn principles from social-behavioral learning theory to enhance motivation to change, maximize therapeutic expectancy, and positively reinforce success experiences to increase treatment engagement.