Addiction Treatment and Recovery Careers

Abstract

Recovery from addiction is a complex and dynamic process, with considerable variations across individuals. Despite historical and recent surge of interest in recovery among many stakeholders in the addiction field, empirical research on recovery has been limited. The varying definitions of recovery across different stakeholder groups best illustrate the wide-ranging thinking on recovery, yet how recovery is conceptualized, promoted, and achieved has important impli- cations for how treatment systems should be structured, delivered, and evaluated. The concept of addiction as a chronic illness is redefining the fundamental way we view drug abuse and its treatment. Currently, many efforts are directed toward determining how to provide a continuity of treatment and how to measure if treatment systems are successfully addressing addiction as a chronic disease. In this chapter, we describe empirical patterns of drug use trajectories over the life course, discuss the diverse ways of conceptualizing recovery, and identify key aspects of addiction that require attention as we investigate and treat addiction to promote long-term, stable recovery.