Professor Sarah Bowen Continues Research on Addiction Disorders

The National Institutes of Health have awarded a five-year grant totaling $365,537 to a team that includes Pacific University professor Sarah Bowen as a co-investigator. Bowen and others will explore the use of mindfulness based relapse prevention therapy to treat women with post-traumatic stress disorder who have also developed substance use disorders.

Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention, or MBRP, consists of an eight-session group therapy program for the treatment of individuals with substance use disorders.

Bowen, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor within the Pacific’s School of Professional Psychology, is working with principal investigator Dr. Therese Killeen of Medical University of South Carolina on the study, “Mindfulness Meditation for the Treatment of Women with PTSD and SUD,” funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse through the NIH.

Bowen is the co-author of the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors: A Clinician’s Guide, and she has facilitated MBRP groups in both private and county treatment agencies. Last fall, she spoke to the Huffington Post about MBRP's potential.

For more information, please contact Dr. Bowen at 503-352-3614.