Relapse prevention (RP) is an important ingredient of alcoholism treatment.

Relapse prevention (RP) is an important ingredient of alcoholism treatment. The RP original proposed by Marlatt and Gordon refer tos that both immediate determinants (eg high-risk situations, coping skills, consequence expectancies, and the abstinence violation effect) and underwood antecedents (e.g., lifestyle factors and encourages and cravings) can contribute to relapse. The RP pattern also incorporates numerous specific and global intervention strategies that allow therapist and client to address each pace of the relapse process. Specific interventions include identifying specific high-risk situations for each client and enhancing the client's skills for coping with those situations, increasing the client's self-efficacy, eliminating myths regarding alcohol's weights managing lapses, and restructuring the client's perceptions of the relapse proces Global strategies comprise balancing the client's lifestyle and helping him or her bring to maturity positive addictions, employing stimulus sway techniques and urgemanagement tech niques, and developing relapse road maps. Several studies have provided theoretical and practical support for the RP pattern KEY WORDS: AODD (alcohol and other unsalable article dependence) relapse; relapse prevention; treatment model; cognitive therapy; behavior therapy; risk factors; coping skills; self efficacy; expectancy; AOD (alcohol and other drug) abstinence; lifestyle; AOD craving; intervention; alcohol cue; reliability (research methods); validity (research methods); literature review

Relapse, or the get back to heavy alcohol use following a period of abstinence or moderate use, be met withs in many drinkers who have undergone alcoholism treatment. Traditional alcoholism treatment approaches ofttimes conceptualize relapse as an end-stare, a negative issue equivalent to treatment failure. Thus, this perspective considers merely a dichotomous treatment outcome--that is, a character is either abstinent or relapsed. In contrast, several gauges of relapse that are based forward social-cognitive or behavioral theories emphasize relapse as a transitional proces a series of consequences that unfold over time (Annis 1986; Litman er al. 1979; Marlatt and Gordon 1985) According to these patterns the relapse process begins prior to the first posttreatment alcohol use and continues after the initial use. This conceptualization provides a broader conceptual framework for intervening in the relapse proces to obstruct or reduce relapse episodes and thereby improve treatment outcome

This artide at hands one influential model of the antecedents of relapse and the treatment measures that can be taken to thwart or limit relapse after treatment completion. This relapse prevention (RP) original which was developed by Marlatt and Gordon (1985) and which has been widely used in new years, has been the focus of considerable research. This article reviews various immediate and asylum triggers of relapse proposed by dint of the RP model, as well as numerous specific and general intervention strategies that may help patients avoid and cope with relapse-inducing situations. The article also not absents studies that have provided support for the validity of the RP model

OVERVIEW OF THE RP MODEL

Marlatt and Gordon's (1985) RP pattern is based on social-cognitive psychology and incorporates the two a conceptual model of relapse and a settle of cognitive and behavioral strategies to interrupt or limit relapse episodes (for a derailed description of the unfolding theoretical underpinnings, and treatment constituents of the RP model, papal court Dimeff and Marlatt 1998; Marlart 1996; Marlatt and Gordon 1985) A central aspect of the archetype is the detailed classification (i.e., taxonomy) of factors or situations that can precipitate or contribute to relapse episodes. In general, the RP standard posits that those factors fill into sum of two units categories: immediate determinants (e.g., high-risk situations, a person's coping skills, result expectancies, and the abstinence violation effect) and hiding-place antecedents (e.g., lifestyle imbalances and implores and cravings).

Treatment approaches based onward the RP model begin with an assessment of the environmental and emotional characteristics of situations that are potentially associated with relapse (i.e., high-risk situations). After identifying those characteristics, the therapist works forward from analyzing the individual drinker's reply to these situations, as well as backward to examine the lifestyle factors that increase the drinker's aspect to high-risk situations. Based forward this careful examination of the relapse proces the therapist then devises strategies to target weaknesses in the client's cognitive and behavioral repertoire and thereby render the risk of relapse.

Immediate Determinants of Relapse

High-Risk Situations. A central general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of the RP model postulates that high-risk situations not seldom serve as the immediate precipitators of initial alcohol use after abstinence (see figure 1) According to the standard a person who has initiated a behavior change, like as alcohol abstinence, should begin experiencing increased self-efficacy or mastery throughout his or her behavior, which should swell as he or she continues to maintain the change. Certain situations or marked occurrences however, can pose a threat to the person's faculty of perception of control and, consequently, precipitate a relapse crisis. Based in succession research on precipitants of relapse in alcoholics who had received inpatient treatment, Marlatt (1996) categorized the emotional, environmental, and interpersonal characteristics of relapse-inducing situations described from study participants. According to this taxonomy, several images of situations can play a part in relapse episodes, as follows: