In the current review we have noted several areas for future research, including examining dynamic models of treatment outcomes, extensions of RP to include mindfulness and/or self-control training, research on the mechanisms of change following successful treatment outcomes, the role of genetic influences as potential moderators of treatment outcomes, and neurocognitive and neurobiological examinations of the relapse process using tests of implicit cognition and advanced neuroimaging techniques. In addition to these areas, which already have initial empirical data, we predict that we could learn significantly more about the relapse process using experimental manipulation to test specific aspects of the cognitive-behavioral model of relapse. For example, it has been shown that self-efficacy for abstinence can be manipulated [137]. Thus, one could test whether increasing self-efficacy in an experimental design is related to better treatment outcomes. Similarly, self-regulation ability, outcome expectancies, and the abstinence violation effect could all be experimentally manipulated, which could eventually lead to further refinements of RP strategies.
