NCJ Number
123933
Editor(s)
G Bennett
Date Published
1989
Length
201 pages
Annotation
A series of chapters by drug-treatment practitioners addresses the importance of learning, the developing nature of motivation, the roles of medication, and the potential for drug services to learn from other types of treatment programs.
Abstract
Chapters on the importance of learning note that drug users learn to use drugs through processes common to most areas of life. One chapter describes ways in which learning processes are involved when people take drugs in various ways, including dependent use, and as habits are maintained. Learning is also important in treatment, as various chapters discuss the development of drug-free coping skills and relapse-prevention training. In discussing motivation for treatment, a number of chapters contradict the view that drug users are either motivated or not motivated to stop using drugs. Drug users are portrayed as progressing through a predictable sequence of stages in which their motivation develops and changes. In discussing the roles of medication in drug treatment, chapters indicate that it is helpful in sustaining participants as they are undergoing the psychological changes necessary to stop drug use. Regarding the use of treatment methods derived from other types of programs, lessons are drawn from alcohol and handicap services in the use of a community drug team. Chapter notes, subject index.