Acceptability of mindfulness-based interventions for substance use disorder: A systematic review

and Purpose: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) for substance use disorders (SUD) have shown promising results. However, acceptability of MBIs in the context of SUD treatment has yet to be systematically assessed across published studies. Our aims were to (a) review the literature for assessments of acceptability; (b) summarize how, when, and for whom acceptability is being measured; and (c) create suggestions for best practices in measuring acceptability of MBIs for SUD.

Five databases were searched with key terms related to mindfulness, relapse prevention, and SUD.

Results highlight that studies of MBIs for SUD treatment lack acceptability assessment, a consistent definition of acceptability, and standardized measurements of acceptability.

The lack of measurement and conceptual consistency make it difficult to conclude acceptability of MBIs for SUD treatment. It is imperative that more efforts be directed toward measurement of intervention acceptability to assess whether such interventions could be taken to scale.