The 3rd National Conference of the Society of Addiction Psychology is organized by the Department of Clinical and Rehabilitation Psychology and Research at the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (Divyangjan), Dehradun.
Substance Abuse Disorder (SAD) is a condition where an individual gets addicted and feels compelled to take medications and drugs beyond the prescribed and required amount.
The conference will be conducted on 21st and 22nd June 2024 with early registrations starting from May 15th 2024. Regular registration begins from May 16th 2024 to June 20th 2024.
The Society of Addiction Psychology
Its leading focus is on Substance abuse, especially for adolescents and young adults who are vulnerable to it. With increasing cases of drug addiction in India, the Society of Addiction Psychology has come up as a fighting element to deal with it. It comprises professionals coming from expertise with various diverse approaches to addictive psychology. The Department of Clinical and Rehabilitation Psychology and Research (DCRPR) provides psychological and rehabilitative services beyond the scope of just visual impairment. It was established to focus on the psychological dimensions that come along with a disability or a disorder.
What is the theme?
This year’s theme is “Breaking the Chains: Innovative Approaches in Addiction Psychology”. The focus is on analysing what are the advancements and research to aid addiction psychology. This comprises its spreading awareness among the public, intervention strategies and collaborative steps of innovation.
Breaking the chain describes the chains of drugs that the victim gets tangled in. The procedure that will be followed is through research and new modalities of treatment that have come up. A new multidimensional approach will also be incorporated to understand biological, environmental, social and psychological factors that affect how an individual turns into a drug addict.
Subthemes for the conference help to gain an outline and perspective for the event.
Neurobiological: This aspect defines the brain and its associated features such as the changes witnessed in the structure of the brain with prolonged drug addiction, which genetic elements are more susceptible to substance abuse and co-morbidity with other mental health disorders, that is what other disorders can occur or become a risk factor to substance abuse disorder.
Psychological: It focuses on enhancing the growth of resilience, both mental and emotional, that will cater for recovering from drug addiction. Along with this, early intervention is focused here to preventing drug contact before it becomes an addiction. Classifying the early signs of substance abuse is the key element. Innovative approaches for therapy are another significant area where new research is focused upon, especially intervention based on emerging technology.
Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies: Assessment and evaluation of how effective CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is in the scope of substance abuse intervention.
Digital Technology: With increased reach of technology, especially social media channels has contributed in both -increasing the risk factors for substance abuse as well as the benefits of raising awareness against it. This is because digital technology has spread new branches of information that are accessible to almost every section of society. Analysing its effective application can significantly deal with substance abuse disorder at a much larger scale across India.
Socio-cultural factors: With various victims of substance abuse coming from diverse backgrounds, they have different beliefs that require a customized form of intervention. Family dynamics are one of the most crucial factors in understanding the in-depth analysis of a patient.
Policies: The policies that need to be formulated with respect to both prevention as well as treatment for drug addiction with a vision of future framework.
Holistic Therapies: This goes beyond the conventional method of therapeutic intervention by incorporating alternative therapies like yogic practices and meditation.
