Motivation for Change and Alcoholism Treatment

Motivation for Change and Alcoholism Treatment Carlo C. DiClemente, Ph.D., Lori E. Bellino, M.Ed., and Tara M. Neavins, M.S. Motivation plays an important role in alcoholism treatment by influencing patients to seek, complete, and comply with treatment as well as make successful long-term changes in their drinking. Both alcohol-abusing and alcohol-dependent people can be classified into different “stages of change” in terms of their readiness to alter their drinking behavior. Consequently, researchers have had to consider more seriously the role

of motivation in the treatment of and recovery from substance abuse and to incorporate motivational enhancement strategies into treatment programs. KEY WORDS: motivation; addiction care; stages of change; AODD (alcohol and other drug dependence) recovery; treatment; AOD (alcohol and other drug) use behavior; behavioral change; AODU (alcohol and other drug use) treatment method; motivational interviewing; intervention; patient treatment matching; literature review M otivation is an important first step toward any action or change in behavior. Sayings such as “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” reflect the fact that people generally will not perform desired behaviors unless or until they are motivated to do so. Until recently, many alcoholism treatment professionals used this approach when treating alcoholic patients, contending that interventions were useless until the alcohol-dependent patient was self-motivated to change his or her drinking behavior. During the past several years, however, researchers and clinicians have shown increased interest in the concept of moti- vation and the role that motivation plays in recovery from alcohol problems. Researchers have outlined a series of stages of change to describe the process that a person goes through when making a behavioral change. Those stages—pre- contemplation (i.e., not...

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