Clinical and Experimental Psychology

Psychotherapy for Substance use Disorders in Africa: A Narrative

Fungai Kevin Ntuli^{* *}Correspondence: Fungai Kevin Ntuli, Professor, Ingutsheni Central Hospital, Zimbabwe, Tel: 263777970592, Email:

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Substance Use Disorder has been a plague bedeviling Africa for more than five decades. Africa’s economic crisis has led to an exponential rise in substance use among its inhabitants. As indicated by previous statistics, Alcohol and Cannabis are the most used substances in Africa. The major reasons why people abuse substances are unemployment, frustration, poverty, hopelessness and failure. Psychotherapy has been suggested to be an effective part of rehabilitation of people with Substance Use Disorder which goes hand in hand with pharmacological interventions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing are amongst the interventions considered to be more efficacious in the management and treatment of Substance Use Disorder. The goal of this paper is to review existing information on treatment and management of Substance Use Disorder in Africa. The synthesis of this information regarding Substance Use Disorder can help inform researchers, clinicians and policy makers on which psychotherapies are most suited to the African context in treating Substance Use Disorder

To evaluate

(a) Know which substances are most abused in Africa

(b) To determine which age group is most in need of rehabilitation due to Substance Use Disorder

(c) To show how Psychotherapy is used to treat Substance Use Disorder

(d) To unravel the efficacy of Psychotherapy in Substance Use Disorder Search strategy: Nine electronic databases were searched using keywords:

‘prevalence’, ‘psychotherapy’, ‘CBT’, ‘Motivational Interviewing’, ‘Africa’, ‘African countries’, ‘African continent’, ‘substance use’, ‘substance use disorder’, ‘Cannabis use disorder’, ‘Cannabis dependence’

The selection criteria focused exclusively on studies done in Africa and those studies are in English. The studies considered in the final inclusion of the criteria were of treatment of Substance Use Disorder using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing.

Two ways to define Psychotherapy

-Data indicated that Substance Use Disorder across all age groups can be treated more effectively and with better results of reduced relapse rate and increased days of abstinence among people abusing substances by using an integrated approach. In this case an integrated approach of Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy showed promising results.

- The integrated approach is a more effective method of treating Substance Use Disorder. However, it is noted that more people drop out of the treatment regime. As such more should be done to ensure they complete the required sessions. The more sessions a person has the more increased their chances of reducing relapse rate and increasing days of abstinence? Motivational Interviewing as part treatment alongside Cognitive Behavioral Therapy seems to be an essential ingredient ensuring the increased probability of completing psychotherapy sessions.