Professionals’ discourse on relapse in addiction

Abstract

THE HISTORY OF ADDICTION has been marked by a series of conflicting ideas regarding the true nature of the phenomenon (Volpicelli et al., 2001) and the term ‘addiction’ remains contested (Clark, 2011). However, the proposed reintroduction of the term ‘addictive disorder’ in DSM-5 and the inclusion of behavioural addictions under this umbrella is testament to its continuing functionality. The concept of addiction as a chronic disorder, or a ‘state’ (Davies, 1997), requiring long-term management has been widely disseminated within the substance misuse treatment field (Volpicelli et al., 2001). However, more recently career models of addiction have been proposed (e.g. Clark, 2011) suggesting that addiction may be viewed as something that people do rather than something that happens to people (Davies, 1997). The linking of the term addiction to the abuse of substances favoured the dominant disease approach but more recently research has discussed the value of conceptualising a number of behaviours as potentially, facilitating the flourishing of a number of social psychological models that depart radically from the medical model and the disease concept.