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A Follow-up Study of Female Narcotic Addicts: Variables Related to Outcome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. T. d'Orbán*
Affiliation:
H.M. Prison, Holloway, London, N.7

Extract

The poor prognosis of narcotic dependence is generally recognized, but this is a field in which it is specially difficult to make predictions about the outcome of treatment in the individual patient. Vaillant (1966a) noted that abstinence appears to depend more on the addict's ability to discover satisfying alternatives to his addiction than on methods of treatment. In an attempt to identify prognostic indicators in narcotic dependence a number of follow-up studies have examined the relationship between outcome and various social and psychological characteristics of the patients studied. While most follow-up studies are of male addicts or of samples containing only a small proportion of women, the present study is concerned with the outcome in a sample of 66 female narcotic addicts.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

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