Another key component of CBT, while not necessarily specific to it, is emphasis on extra-session practice assignments (hereafter referred to as homework) as a means of facilitating the generalization and maintenance of adaptive behavioral and cognitive skills. The general body of research on homework in psychotherapy has indicated a robust relationship between homework completion and treatment outcomes (Kazantzis, Whittington, & Dattilio, 2010). Although the amount of evidence supporting a homework-outcome relationship in CBT for substance use disorders is relatively sparse across various drugs of abuse, multiple reports have indicated greater homework completion has been associated with reduced drug use (Carroll, Ball, Martino, Nich, Babuscio, Gordon, et al., 2008; Carroll, Nich, & Ball, 2005; Gonzalez, Schmitz, & DeLaune, 2006). Moreover, there is evidence to suggest homework completion is not simply an indicator of symptom severity, or a proxy for motivation or treatment attendance (Decker et al., 2016). While more work in this area is needed, particularly with respect to predictors of homework completion, homework in CBT clearly plays in important role in successful treatment outcomes.
