| Abstract: | It is clear that family/parental peer and individual risk factors that appear early in life contribute to increased susceptibility to addiction. This study aimed to determine the relationship between those risk factors, the development of opiate addiction, and the development of psychological maladjustment in addicts. A total of 252 subjects were selected from in and around Baltimore, aged less than 40 years, and 12 or older at the onset of opiate addiction. There were 342 controls from the same neighbourhood, matched for age, race and place of reidence, but free from opiate addiction. Ten risk factors in the five domains of family disruption, peer deviance, personal deviance, psychological symptoms and lack of protective factors, were studied. The addicts and the non-addicts had different risk profiles comparing black and white people, whilst a significant differentiation was found for each race: white addicts scored significantly higher than non-white on all of the risk factors, whereas black addicts scored significantly higher than black non-addicts on risk factors denoting peer school misbehaviour and fighting, personal drug abuse and behavioural deviance. The study has implications for both the course and treatment of drug addiction. The findings suggest that as well as being a causal agent, drug addiction is a concomitant feature of a variety of problems. Copyright © 1997 Whurr Publishers Ltd. |
