A new study has found that multidimensional interventions – those tackling biological, social, environmental and mental health obstacles while also addressing a person’s substance use – does wonders for someone hoping to stop using drugs; while people with alcohol addiction do best with simple interventions that focus only on their alcohol use.Researchers at the University of Illinois (UI) at Urbana-Champaign, US conclude that holistic approaches work better over many programs currently available to curb substance abuse.

“Many programs treat drug or alcohol use as relatively independent of other related behaviours or contextual factors,” said Dolores Albarracín, a professor of psychology at UI. “But research reveals that substance use often stems from a variety of biological, psychological and social factors, all working in tandem.”

Albarracín thinks drug- or alcohol-treatment goals have better outcomes with more types of intervention. However, it could also be true that adding too many objectives could “overwhelm” a person and reduce their mental and physical resources available.

Through the study, the researchers found a positive association between the number of interventions a drug-treatment or prevention program included and its effectiveness in combatting nonmedical drug use, but not alcohol use. Addressing a person’s alcohol use was better than not, but there were no further gains from adding other recommendations.

“We also found that interventions were more efficacious when they were delivered by experts and included a behavioural contract,” Albarracín said.

Previous studies from Albarracin’s lab also showed that lifestyle modifications were more successful when addressing three or four harmful behaviours. For example, a person who wants to quit smoking might have a goal of walking every day and eating more fruits and vegetables. The evidence now corroborates the findings then – that curbing substance use works best when addressing the problem holistically.