Assessment of spirituality and its relevance to addiction treatment

The prominence of Twelve-Step programs has led to increased attention on the putative role of spirituality in recovery from addictive disorders. We developed a 6-item Spirituality Self-Rating Scale designed to reflect a global measure of spiritual orientation to life, and we demonstrated here its internal consistency reliability in substance abusers on treatment and in nonsubstance abusers. This scale and the measures related to recovery from addiction and treatment response were applied in three diverse treatment settings: a general hospital inpatient psychiatry service, a residential therapeutic community, and methadone maintenance programs. Findings on these patient groups were compared to responses given by undergraduate college students, medical students, addiction faculty, and chaplaincy trainees. These suggest that, for certain patients, spiritual orientation is an important aspect of their recovery. Furthermore, the relevance of this issue may be underestimated in the way treatment is framed in a range of clinical facilities.