Psychosocial Interventions for Drug Misuse was commissioned by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) from the British Psychological Society (BPS) to provide support for drug treatment providers and commissioners wishing to develop or to introduce a range of evidence-based psychosocial interventions for those with drug misuse problems.

The document is designed to support drug treatment services in the effective delivery of evidence-based psychosocial interventions both for drug misuse and for common co-morbid mental health problems. It focuses on evidence-based treatment interventions recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and provides a range of tools to support effective implementation.

The document is primarily relevant to practitioners, service managers and commissioners, but may also be of interest to service users and carers as a guide to a number of NICE-recommended treatment options.

The framework used in the document for describing the specific psychosocial interventions adopts a systematic, competence-based approach. The majority of the interventions described are likely to be delivered as adjuncts to standard care (including keyworking and pharmacological interventions) and it is important that staff delivering them are competent in these core interventions. Hence, this can usefully be read in conjunction with established guidance on keyworking and keyworker competences.

In addition to the information and tools presented in the appendices of this document, a range of other resources for the delivery of psychosocial interventions is accessible at the NTA’s Psychosocial Interventions Resource Library (PIRL) at www.nta.nhs.uk/PIRL.The key evidence-based psychosocial interventions (categorised as either low- or high-intensity) that that are discussed in detail in the document are:

For the management of drug misuse:
• Motivational interventions (low-intensity)
• Contingency management (low-intensity)
• Behavioural couples therapy (high-intensity).

For the management of common mental health problems:
• Cognitive behavioural therapy by guided self help (low-intensity)
• Behavioural activation (low-intensity)
• Cognitive behavioural therapy for depression and anxiety (high-intensity).