# Mindfulness for Alcohol Abusing Offenders:  Mechanisms and Outcomes

> **NIH NIH R01** · THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK · 2021 · $743,310

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The pernicious link between substance abuse and criminal behavior imposes major costs to society, totaling
billions of dollars in the U.S. annually. There is a critical need for more effective interventions to counteract the
high rates of relapse and recidivism in alcohol and substance abusing criminal offenders. Periods of offender
incarceration provide a unique opportunity to develop and deploy such interventions. Progress in intervention
development could be achieved by targeting specific cognitive and affective vulnerabilities that are common
among substance abusing criminal offenders. Preliminary studies suggest that meditative or mindfulness
interventions may confer significant psychological and behavioral benefits to inmates. However, the
mechanisms and extent of intervention efficacy are unclear, as these previous studies have been beset by a
number of methodological limitations. Moreover, to date no study has examined the neurobiological
mechanisms that relate to treatment success in this population. NIAAA has recently made a program call to
address these issues (PA-15-299). Here we answer this program call and propose to undertake a rigorous and
comprehensive longitudinal study of mindfulness treatment of alcohol and substance use disorders among
female inmates. This project will randomly assign over 400 female inmates to a mindfulness or relapse
prevention training course, and both will be compared against a no treatment control. The mindfulness
intervention will be tailored to address two key neuropsychological deficits in alcohol abusing criminal
offenders: impulsivity and craving. We will test hypotheses about the neural changes over time with treatment
to elucidate mechanisms of change. We will obtain estimates of “real-world” efficacy of the intervention by
collecting outcome measures in prison (conduct reports) and following release (alcohol use relapse and
antisocial behavior). This project takes advantage of a unique, longstanding partnership between the research
team and the states of New Mexico and Wisconsin Correction Departments that allows collection of
comprehensive assessment data from inmates during incarceration, including brain imaging data with a mobile
MRI scanner, as well as access to post-release outcomes and relapse data. Completion of these aims is a
critical step for implementing and evaluating a promising mindfulness intervention for this high-risk population.
The proposed research will also begin to elucidate the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of the
treatment. These results will thus significantly advance a program of research seeking to translate the growing
knowledge of neuropsychological deficits into more targeted and effective treatments for alcohol and
substance abuse problems in criminal offenders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149154
- **Project number:** 5R01AA026290-04
- **Recipient organization:** THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK
- **Principal Investigator:** KENT A KIEHL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $743,310
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149154

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149154, Mindfulness for Alcohol Abusing Offenders:  Mechanisms and Outcomes (5R01AA026290-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149154. Licensed CC0.

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