BRENDA

BRENDA (Volpicelli, Pettinati, McLellan, & O'Brien, 2001), is the first psychosocial therapy designed to help individuals stay in treatment and is meant to be used in combination with medication expressly for treating addiction.  Each letter in BRENDA stands for an scientifically supported component of this approach, aimed at enhancing compliance and success with substance abuse therapy:  the use of Biopsychosocial evaluations and Reporting findings from these assessments to patients; Empathy on the part of treatment providers toward patients; an individualized approach that addresses the patient’s individual treatment Needs; Direct advice provided by therapists based on the information gathered from the previous steps and an Assessment of the patient’s reaction to the direct advice, making adjustments to the treatment plan as needed.  The BRENDA approach was expressly designed to be implemented in conjunction with the use of medications specifically for treating addiction.  It has been shown to be successful and superior to other approaches to addiction therapy in clinical trials, and the scientific support for its components has been well documented.  The BRENDA approach to addiction therapy is the cutting edge of addiction treatment but it is positioned to become the gold standard psychosocial treatment used in concordance with pharmacotherapy for alcoholism.