title: Goal Management Training and Mindfulness Meditation improve executive functions and transfer to ecological tasks of daily life in polysubstance users enrolled in therapeutic community treatment.
abstract: We have previously shown that Goal Management Training+Mindfulness Meditation (GMT+MM) improves executive functions in polysubstance users enrolled in outpatient treatment. The aim of this study was to establish if GMT+MM has similar positive effects on executive functions in polysubstance users in residential treatment, and if executive functions' gains transfer to more ecologically valid goal-oriented tasks.
  
  
  
  Thirty-two polysbustance users were randomly allocated to eight weeks of GMT+MM (n=16) or control, i.e., no-intervention (n=16); both groups received treatment as usual. Outcome measures included performance in laboratory tasks of basic and complex executive functions (i.e., basic: working memory and inhibition; complex: planning and self-regulation) and in an ecological task of goal-directed behavior (the Multiple Errands Test - contextualized version, MET-CV) measured post-interventions.
  
  
  
  Results showed that GMT+MM was superior to control in improving basic measures of working memory (Letter-number sequencing; F=4.516, p=0.049) and reflection impulsivity (Information Sampling Test; F=6.217, p=0.018), along with initial thinking times during planning (Zoo Map Test; F=8.143, p=0.008). In addition, GMT+MM was superior to control in improving performance in the MET-CV (task failures; F=8.485, p=0.007).
  
  
  
  Our findings demonstrate that GMT+MM increases reflective processes and the achievement of goals in daily activities, furthermore ecological test can detects changes easily than laboratory tasks.
authors.affiliation: University of Granada, Spain. Electronic address: cvalls@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valls-Serrano
authors.affiliation: University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caracuel
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Australia.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verdejo-Garcia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation; D064866:Mindfulness; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D013663:Teaching; D013808:Therapeutic Community; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Executive functions; Goal Management Training; Mindfulness Meditation; Multiple errands test; Polysbustance abuse