Substance dependence is a chronic and highly prevalent condition leading to dysfunction in
personal, occupational and social area that can occur during periods of heavy alcohol
consumption and even following treatment. According to WHO estimates in year 2010, 3.4-6.6
per cent of the world’s population in age group of 15-64 had used an illicit substance at least
once in their life (WHO, 2012). Illicit drug use globally led deaths in range of 99,000 to 253,000
in the year 2010 (WHO, 2012). Recent report of WHO (2014) suggests that 38.3% of the global
population consume alcohol and on an average, an individual over 15 years of age consume 6.2
litres of alcohol annually. Thus drug dependence has become a worldwide crisis as it is
associated with adverse social and economic consequences as well as physical and mental
illness.
There is a vast difference among use, abuse and dependence and not everyone who uses
substance is abuses or is dependent on them. A variety of potential contributing factors,
including age, mood instability, stress, and personality characteristics such as poor distress
tolerance, inadequate social skills, and lack of assertiveness etc. found to be associated with
substance dependence and dealt with using number of intervention strategies but still relapse rate
found to be too high among these individuals. The research has established the clinical relevance
of identification and modification of cognitive components as it is often associated with better
treatment outcome and low rate of relapse across various disorders. Although, recently rapid
attempts have been made to explore underlying cognitive elements in substance use but these
elements are still less identified and as a result management of these elements using
psychological intervention still less translated into routine practice in the clinical care. Hence, it
is important to study systematically the substance use disorders in terms of associated cognitive
elements. The current article is aimed to review systematically the published literature on
identification and modification of dysfunctional cognition in substance use disorders.