Childhood Obesity News has looked at numerous aspects of the intersection between technology and therapy. Electronic gadgets like computers and mobile phones, as well as numerous kinds of trackers and monitors, have captured the imagination of the public and lit fires of excitement in the imaginations of medical experts in almost every field.
Who doesn’t want to improve our ability to, for instance, assess, prevent, and treat substance use disorders? Previous generations of clinicians and theoreticians longed for more accurate and useful tools. These inventions have an almost unlimited capacity to collect and share information in ways of which they hardly dared to dream.
We mention this because Suzette Glasner-Edwards, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of California, in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, has joined the team of researchers for the three-year, multi-center clinical trial, of which we will speak more.
Big questions
Dr. Glasner-Edwards is all about evidence-based treatments, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), and mindfulness-based treatments. She looks into the learned aspects of addictive behaviors.
And when psychotherapy works, why does it? What are the “key ingredients” in that peculiar recipe? What are the benefits of using technology to assess and treat addiction? Why should anyone do that, or want to?
The priority is to develop “technology-based treatment programs that deliver these types of treatments using text messaging, social media, and other computer platforms.” This project with the W8Loss2Go app anticipates her insights on such issues as why teens are untruthful in their self-reporting, and why such a seemingly minor procedure as weighing food portions is shunned like an onerous burden.
The Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook is the volume of “practical tools to enable the addict to achieve and sustain a life of recovery” compiled by Dr. Glasner-Edwards. Her “About” page says the book advocates…
[…] a new, individualized approach that enables the addict to choose a unique combination of skills and strategies that pave the way to long-term success in recovery and healthy living.
This concept rings a bell. A very recent post about Dr. Jens-Christian Holm described his method:
Dr. Holm actually formulated an à la carte menu of about 100 rules. From them, typically, a couple of dozen rules are chosen for any particular family.
We hope that readers will go to the 35-minute video, “The Use of Technology in Addiction Treatment,” whose descriptive material says,
Preliminary studies in the addictions area suggest both promising clinical outcomes and evidence of cost savings associated with the use of technology-assisted interventions. Dr. Glasner-Edwards reviews selected web/computer-based interventions and mobile technology advancements in addiction treatment, discussing both the positive outcomes and the challenges and limitations.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “About,” DrGlasner.com
Source: “The Use of Technology in Addiction Treatment, Suzette Glasner-Edwards, PhD,” Vimeo.com
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