Psychic Symptomatology as Predictor to Outcome of Treatment for Adolescent Drug Abusers

• NCJ Number: 165034
• Journal: Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (1996) Pages: 81-90
• Author(s): A S Friedman; A Terras
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): 5 R18DA3184
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from 176 adolescents were used to determine the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and outcomes of drug treatment in six drug-free outpatient programs.

Abstract

Previous research reported that adult drug abusers who reported a greater degree of psychiatric symptoms at admission improved less in outpatient treatment. The present study measured improvement by the degree of reduction in drug use and drug abuse from pretreatment to the follow-up 15 months later. The participants ranged from 14 to 21 years of age and was 64 percent male and 36 percent female. The participants were also predominantly white and Catholic. Participants and their mothers signed consents to take part in the study. Results revealed that greater psychopathology overall was not related to less improvement for adolescent drug abusers, except that greater paranoid trends among the 112 males predicted less reduction in drug use. In addition, borderline psychotic symptoms predicted more improvement as indicated by a reduction in drug use. Table and 19 references (Author abstract modified)