Patient-centered addiction medicine: What patients say helps them the most in their recovery - the role of whole-person Healthcare and prayer in opioid addiction recovery

Opioid addiction is a public health disease reaching epidemic proportions, destroying countless lives, and recently gaining increased media attention. In the past, spirituality has been utilized in the setting of alcoholism treatment with organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). However, its role and significance in helping overcome opioid addiction remains a subject of ongoing investigation. In this paper, we explore various strategies of recovery and which strategies are the most helpful from the patients’ perspective, in assisting them with their recovery. Patients in an outpatient, medication-assisted, opioid addiction recovery program were asked to participate in either a faith-based recovery program or a traditional recovery program. Two-thirds of patients chose the faith-based program; one-third chose the traditional, or secular one. Using a questionnaire designed for clinical use, participants in both groups reflected on over 20 strategies of recovery. We hypothesized that the faith-based group participants would tend to rely more heavily on non-traditional means of recovery, such as utilizing prayer and reading the Bible, to a significantly greater degree than their secular-based counterparts. We furthermore anticipated that desires for a recovery and well-being for family would be the most frequently-requested topics for prayer. Those in the faith-based group stated that the three most helpful recovery features included taking buprenorphine, not associating with others involved with drugs, and having support from family/friends. The three most helpful features in the secular-based group were identified by participants as taking buprenorphine, not associating with others involved with drugs, and talking with the doctor. To further elucidate one such faith-based strategy, prayer, we qualitatively evaluated in-office prayer content of participants. The most common topics for which participants requested prayer during visits with their doctor were family, friends and recovery. These results provide insight into what strategies participants feel are the most helpful in their recovery. Also, the findings suggest the significant role that bio-psycho-social-spiritual factors play in assisting participants with addiction recovery.