Spiritual and religious support in recovery from addiction among HIV-positive injection drug users

The current study examined the association between support and comfort derived from religion or spirituality and abstinence from illicit drugs in a sample of 43 HIV-positive injection drug users entering a methadone maintenance program. Patients with high ratings of perceived spiritual or religious support were abstinent from illicit drugs significantly longer during the first six months of methadone maintenance than were patients with lower ratings. Controlling for the influence of pretreatment variables (addiction and psychiatric severity, CD4 count, social support, and optimism), and during-treatment variables (methadone dose and attendance at counseling sessions), hierarchical regression analysis showed that strength of religious and spiritual support was a significant independent predictor of abstinence. These findings suggest that spirituality may be an important dimension of patient experience to assess in future addiction treatment outcome research.