The 50,000-patient care visits that I am grateful for having participated in during my 20-plus years as an addiction medicine physician in Boston have offered me unique insights into this complicated disease.

Chief among them these days is that innovative ways to help succeed – and thrive in recovery – may well be tied to dog companionship and/or involvement in a faith community.

And it is impossible to ignore the lessons we are learning from the “cuddling program” begun for neonatal babies exposed to drugs before birth. This novel approach is yielding tremendous benefits for both mother and child.

These therapeutic tactics all combine to champion the healing power of unconditional love. When used alongside our standard treatments, they do offer vital contemporary strategies on how to optimally care for those suffering from substance use disorders.

And the ultimate benefit? Saved lives.

All of this comes at a crucial juncture as we find ourselves experiencing a marked surge in the those who are self-medicating – be it with drugs or alcohol – in an ill-advised attempt to combat loneliness, hopelessness, feeling unloved, and a lost sense of purpose and self-worth.

In fact, this phenomenon has become so pronounced that researchers have assigned the term “deaths of despair” to explain the marked increase in fatalities from suicides, alcohol-related illnesses, and overdoses from despair.

In response, the Boston-area nonprofit Power Forward 25, where I am proud to serve as a board member, is working to change this culture of despair into one of hope and healing. The array of solutions we employ include providing desperately needed scholarships to sober homes, to the creation of a unique, specially trained dog program to interact with the residents in those homes.

To determine the efficacy of these approaches, data from patented software is collected to chart the journey of these sober home residents. To date, surveys and heartfelt testimonials from the sober home residents who spend more time with the dogs appear to demonstrate noticeable gains in their personal recoveries.

These include improving both physical and emotional well-being, reducing stress levels, enhancing social interactions, and increasing the ability to manage cravings. Feedback from residents reveals their gratitude for the unconditional love given by the dogs, and many report they feel a renewed sense of purpose and value – the very things they've often suppressed due to adverse childhood experiences.

Secondly, many Neonatal Intensive Care Units currently utilize volunteers to cuddle and console the newborn babies of mothers afflicted with opiate use disorders. The volunteers' loving human touch generates a powerful healing response in the babies – including the release of Oxytocin, known as the “love hormone.” This helps prevent or lessen the hallmarks of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome – hyperirritability, violent tremors, poor feeding, and sleeping disturbances. The “cuddling program” has proven indispensable in helping to avoid the need for morphine or methadone typically required, enabling the babies to be discharged from the hospital much earlier, with better long-term outcomes.

Lastly, for those struggling from substance use disorders, becoming involved in a faith community can be instrumental in restoring dignity and hope by feeling loved and valued, while also helping bolster resiliency and strengthen family relationships and social connections. It is inspiring to hear patients credit their church attendance for guiding them towards inner peace, wholeness, healing, and recovery.

But it is not only those who are grappling with addictions who benefit, but those who care for them as well. An in-depth review of the landmark Harvard Nurses’ Health Study revealed that those in the field who attended religious services weekly experienced a 68 percent lower risk of “deaths of despair” than those not attending.

And all of these results couldn’t be more timely. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that over 15 percent of Americans 12-and-older are currently battling a substance use disorder, even as less than one-quarter of this population are receiving adequate care for this treatable disease.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that now is the ideal time to take a fresh look at our approach to addiction and give more attention to interventions such as these – ones created to help foster the healing power of unconditional love.

Dogs. Religious worship of some kind. Warm and tender care.

Dr. Michael Hamrock

West Roxbury

Advertisement