Psychological And Methodological Issues In Substance Abu

National Institute On Drug Abuse

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

In these projects, we seek to add to the body of literature demonstrating the benefits of methadone maintenance and to enhance those benefits. A second objective of this project is to examine the roles of other psychological and physiological aspects of drug use in addiction and treatment. Recent investigations include testing whether craving for cocaine and heroin predicts subsequent drug use more strongly when tested with 45-item, multifactor questionnaires than with single-item questionnaires?and, if so, whether 16-item multifactor questionnaires are an adequate substitute for the 45-item versions. In a study that represents a departure for our section, both substantively and methodologically, we are exploring the use of qualitative methods to gain insight into our patients? views on the roles of religion and spirituality in their recovery. In collaboration with outside experts on qualitative research and on the psychology of religion, we have been conducting focus groups in which our patients discuss how they reconcile their lives as drug abusers with their spiritual lives, and how (or indeed whether) issues of spirituality could be addressed in formal treatment settings. [unreadable] A major initiative is to examine the role of exposure to putative triggers (cues in the environment and stress) of relapse in addiction through the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Studies are being conducted in heroin/cocaine users in methadone maintenance patients and in obese individuals who are in a weight maintenance program. Participants carry electronic diaries. The base rates of exposure to putative relapse triggers as well as the presence of these triggers during relapse are being recorded. The use of electronic diaries for collection of treatment outcome and for treatment delivery are being explored.