Dr Frank Ryan: Cognitive Therapy for Addiction: Motivation and Change

Dr Frank Ryan

Cognitive Therapy for Addiction: Motivation and Change

February 2013, Wiley Blackwell

Cognitive Therapy for Addiction applies cognitive neuroscience findings to the practice of cognitive therapy as a remedy for addiction to substances and gambling disorders. The persistence of addiction is attributed in particular to compromised inhibitory control in the face of reward predictive cues that maintain their value in the long term. Core cognitive processes such as attention, memory and decision making are recruited in the pursuit of these anticipated rewards.

Addiction is thus depicted as a disorder of reward processing. Addressing the cognitive processes that support this provides a clear focus for therapeutic intervention. This volume provides both a conceptual framework of this emergent paradigm and a means of augmenting existing approaches. The text begins with a review of relevant research findings from clinical trials, cognitive neuroscience and psycho-pharmacology.

The therapeutic programme is organised into four stages termed the "4Ms":

• Motivation and engagement
• Managing impulses
• Mood management
• Maintenance and relapse prevention

At each stage, therapeutic strategies are provided in order to  enhance self–regulation and emphasise cognitive control.

Dr Frank Ryan is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Mental Health at Imperial and a consultant clinical psychologist in Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust London.  He practises as a cognitive behaviour therapist with a special interest in addiction and co-occurring disorders. The focus of his research is cognitive processes in addiction.