Art Therapy in Opiate Use Disorder: Moving Toward an Integrated Treatment Framework

Abstract

Drug addiction is a major public health concern resulting in deleterious consequences to individuals and society. Yet, addiction is a recoverable disease with the right support. Although evidence-based treatments exist for opiate use disorder, many individuals remain treatment refractory and die from overdoses. These individuals often present to treatment with dual diagnosis and polysubstance use, which are conditions that increase client complexity and barriers to recovery. An integrative systematic literature review was conducted to examine how art therapy has been used in these populations and ways that it could be incorporated into current addiction neuroscience treatment. The culmination is a six-session proposal with the goal of increasing treatment retention in refractory populations. Through the framework of the Expressive Therapies Continuum and modern addiction neuroscience treatment, the proposal is theorized to integrate limbic to cortical functioning, stimulate motivation, increase empowerment, and support clients during recovery. Though the proposal gives special consideration to those with opiate use disorder in medication-assisted treatment, it inclusive of other substance use disorders and accounts for various client complexities, as well as being easily adaptable by an art therapist to different treatment settings.