Motivational Enhancement Therapy - MET

Motivational Enhancement Therapy, MET, is a specific application of motivational interviewing that was developed for use in the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse.

Motivational enhancement therapy influences patients to give up secondary substances of abuse, address health issues, and change their social circumstances.

Therapists strengthen patients' commitment to change by helping them to identify their goals for recovery and to determine ways to reach these goals. Motivational Enhancement Therapy, MET, assumes that a patient is responsible for and capable of changing his or her behavior, and the MET therapist focuses on helping a patient mobilize his or her own inner resources.

How Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) Works

The basic motivational principles utilized in MET are expression of empathy, the development of discrepancy, avoiding argumentation, rolling with resistance, and supporting self-efficacy.

Motivation for change is developed by eliciting self-motivational statements, listening with empathy, questioning, presenting personal feedback, affirming the patient, handling resistance, and reframing. Therapists first guide patients through an examination of the pros and cons of their drug use and of the difference between where they are and where they want to be. The therapist does this in an attempt to lead the patent to state their desire to change, as it is the first step in recovery.

Motivational enhancement approaches help clients to address their ambivalence about involvement in substance abuse treatment, and to identify methods of dealing with this ambivalence.

Motivational therapy can be used as a stand-alone counseling approach, but more often it is used as a first step in the recovery process. It is followed by other interventions. It can also be incorporated into subsequent treatment sessions to bolster patients' motivation.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy Research

One study (Saunders et al. 1995) found that brief motivational intervention improved outcomes in MAT. Patients in this study demonstrated greater commitment to abstinence, reported more positive outcomes and fewer opioid-related problems, and relapsed less quickly or frequently than did the control group.
TIP 35, Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT 1999a), provides a thorough discussion of motivational therapy. Another valuable guide is Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change (Miller and Rollnick 2002).

In Project MATCH, the largest clinical trial ever conducted to compare different alcohol treatment approaches, a four-session motivational enhancement therapy yielded long-term overall outcomes that were similar to those of other, more intensive outpatient methods. Further, the results of this study strongly suggested that motivational interviewing could be applied across cultural and economic groups.

Additional Motivational Enhancement Therapy Information

Additional information about motivational interviewing and MET can be found on the Motivational Interviewing Page at http://www.motivationalinterview.org and in Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) TIP 35, Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Use Disorder Treatment (CSAT 1999b). (See http://www.kap.samhsa.gov/products/manuals/index.htm.)

(For more information about motivational interviewing, see TIP 35,b Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment[CSAT 1999b].)

Source; National Library of Medicine