Development and initial examination of a brief intervention for heightened anxiety sensitivity among heroin users.

One adult who used heroin received six short sessions.

The sessions taught how anxiety sparks cravings and how to face body sensations without panic.

Each meeting lasted about an hour and included breathing drills and real-life practice.

After the last session the person felt less bodily alarm, wanted heroin less, and coped better with stress.

The gains stayed when staff checked again four weeks later.

Dudley et al. (2019) later used the same emotion-regulation idea with autistic teens.

They swapped breathing drills for mindfulness and still saw calmer moods, showing the idea travels across groups.

Rodriguez-Moreno et al. (2022) ran a longer twelve-session CBT group with homeless women and also cut anxiety, hinting that six sessions may be enough for some yet twelve gives fuller shelter-anchored support.

Rapp et al. (2017) tried a super-short e-learning drug module for teens with ID; it barely moved attitudes, reminding us that live practice, not just screens, seems key.

You now have a six-hour blueprint that links anxiety to cravings and teaches clients to sit with body cues instead of using.

Try adding the two-minute body scan or paced breathing from this study while clients wait for their next urine screen.

Track if cravings drop; if they do, you may stretch session length or group size with confidence from later studies like Rodriguez-Moreno et al. (2022).