Treatment of drug addiction and psychopathology: A field study

Abstract

Field study to assess the concurrence of the psychopathology of drug addiction, and to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological treatment versus drug-free treatments for the psychopathology of drug addiction. A total of 261 patients treated for drug addiction, 131 on a drug-free treatment and the remaining 130 patients received a drug regime, of which 113 were, according to the Prochaska and Decrement’s Transtheorical Model, in a initial phase of the treatment (from 15 days to 6 months of treatment) and 148 in a maintenance phase in drug treatment (> 6 months), were psychopathologically assessed using the SCL-90-R (Derogatis, 2002). A field study with a 2 X 2 design (treatment: drug-free vs. drug-regime) and (treatment phase: initial phase vs. maintenance in drug treatment) was carried out. The results support the hypothesis of a dual diagnosis, that is, the comorbidity of psychopathology and drug addiction. On the whole, treatment for drug addiction had a significant impact on reducing associated psychopathology. Finally, the results are discussed in the light of the implications for the treatment of drug addiction.

Keywords

• Psychopathology
• Drug addiction
• Drug-free programme
• Antagonists
• agonists
• Dual diagnosis.