Drug Use Before and During Drug Abuse Treatment: 1979-1981 TOPS Admission Cohorts

• NCJ Number: 166029
• Author(s): S G Craddock; R M Bray; R L Hubbard
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 95 pages
• Contract Number(s): 271-79-3611
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Corporate Author: RTI International
• Sale Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

More than 11,000 clients of four types of drug treatment programs were studied with respect to their drug use patterns before and during treatment.

Abstract

Intake and treatment data were collected during 1979, 1980, and 1981 for the clients of detoxification, outpatient methadone maintenance, drug-free outpatient, and drug-free residential treatment programs. Followup interviews were conducted on random samples of the clients at time periods ranging from 90 days to 4 years after treatment. Results revealed that male clients were generally older than female clients with the same drug use pattern. Prior admissions appeared to have a systematic but complex relationship with the drug use pattern; the relationship varied by treatment method. The number of drug-related problems a client had in the year before treatment was positively related to the severity of drug use. Weeks of full-time work did not appear to have any relationship to the severity or type of drug use. Finally, high involvement in a drug use network was strongly related to the severity index for the year before treatment. Tables, appended methodological information and additional results, and 32 references