Substance Abuse Careers: Attempts To Quantify the Course of Dependence (From Alcohol and Drugs: Research and Policy, P 155-159, 1990, Martin Plant, Cees Goos, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-129672)

• NCJ Number: 129686
• Author(s): W Keup
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 5 pages
• Sale Source: University of Edinburgh Press
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This analysis of several papers focusing on efforts to measure the course of drug abuse over individuals' lifetimes notes that the differentiation of drug abuse by type, the drugs involved, the severity of dependence, the duration, and the stage allows a quantification of most drug user careers.

Abstract

Such quantification also depends on the use of uniform criteria and procedures. Much scientific work is required to delineate such career characteristics, so that comparable and reproducible recording procedures may be adopted to produce comparable data from different countries. Those seeking to conduct such studies should try to describe drug abuse careers with the highest degree of precision and should develop widely and internationally acceptable criteria and methods. Finally, the data should cover not only the number of drug abusers, but also the severity of the abuse using a common terminology and standard descriptions. 14 references (Author summary modified)