Detailed Record



Facts and Personal Recovery Stories to Reduce Substance Use Disorder Stigma and Increase Support for Recovery Housing: a US Randomized Study


Abstract Substance use disorder (SUD) is a considerable threat to global public health and is considered a “public health crisis” in the USA. Despite the benefits of increased availability of effective SUD treatment, like recovery housing (RH), social stigma towards individuals with SUD and SUD services is a major obstacle in the establishment of such services. We designed an experiment (N = 2721) with five experimental conditions including a control condition, an educational message about the effectiveness of RH, and a personal story from an individual in recovery delivered via identified written story, anonymous written story, or a video. We examine the effect of these interventions on social SUD stigma and political and financial behavior in support of RH. We find that written recovery stories can reduce social SUD stigma, but that none of our interventions affected political or financial behavior in support of RH, suggesting behavior may be exceedingly difficult to change.
Authors Madison Ashworth ORCID , Linda Thunström University of WyomingORCID , Grace L. Clancy ORCID , Robin Thompson ORCID , D.P. Johnson , Ernest Fletcher
Journal Info Springer Science+Business Media | International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
Publication Date 6/26/2023
ISSN 1557-1874
TypeKeyword Image article
Open Access closed Closed Access
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01101-2
KeywordsKeyword Image Substance Abuse (Score: 0.59592) , drug use (Score: 0.558147) , Social Support (Score: 0.557247) , harm reduction (Score: 0.529067) , Public Health (Score: 0.526042)