The Relationship Between Vulnerable Attachment Style,Psychopathology, Drug Abuse,and Retention in Treatment Among Methadone Maintenance Treatment Patients |
| |
Authors: | David Potik Einat Peles Yahli Abramsohn Miriam Adelson Shaul Schreiber |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel;2. Department of Psychiatry, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel;3. Tel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv, Israel |
| |
Abstract: | The relationship between vulnerable attachment style, psychopathology, drug abuse, and retention in treatment among patients in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) was examined by the Vulnerable Attachment Style Questionnaire (VASQ), the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), and drug abuse urine tests. After six years, retention in treatment and repeated urine test results were studied. Patients with vulnerable attachment style (a high VASQ score) had higher rates of drug abuse and higher psychopathology levels compared to patients with secure attachment style, especially on the interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, and paranoid ideation scales. Drug abstinence at baseline was related to retention in treatment and to higher rates of drug abstinence after six years in MMT, whereas a vulnerable attachment style could not predict drug abstinence and retention in treatment. Clinical Implications concerning treatment of drug abusing populations and methodological issues concerning the VASQ’s subscales are also discussed. |
| |
Keywords: | drug abuse methadone maintenance treatment psychopathology retention in treatment vulnerable attachment style |
|
|