TV reality shows not steeped in reality

Reality TV shows like A&E's "Intervention" claim unflinching portraits of addiction and treatment, but don't accurately depict either, U.S. researchers say. Study co-authors Jason R. Kosovski and Douglas C. Smith of the University of Illinois and examined the narrative structure of the first six seasons of "Intervention." As each episode unfolds, addicts and their family members reminisce about the addict's childhood and once-promising future before it was being derailed by troubled relationships, traumatic events and substance abuse or, less frequently, behavioral disorders such as compulsive shopping or overeating. With the help of a treatment professional, the family stages an intervention, in which they confront the addict and try to persuade him or her to enter a 90-day residential treatment program. "There's always a causality, and the causality is never genetic it's always environmental the unenhanced message is people from broken homes become addict." Smith says in a statement. "Even though the relationship between trauma and addiction is rather high, it's not nearly 100 percent as the show seems to indicate." In reality, most families never follow through on the interventions and just a small percentage actually do them. In addition, a 90-day stay at a private, for-profit facility is an option beyond the financial means of most families, the study says. The study is published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse.