title: Life change, disease, perception and heroin addiction.
abstract: This is a pilot study of heroin addicts using recently developed tests which measure life change, perception of life change and perception of disease. The data indicate that heroin addicts maintain very high levels of life change while having normal or augmented perception of the impact of life change and of the seriousness of their disease. It is postulated that treatment techniques aimed at increasing understanding and insight may be countertherapeutic for these patients in that it gives them additional methods of manipulating others and tends to perpetuate the addiction life reducing life change in a setting of tight behavioral control where behavioral substitutes to heroin use are offered.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000150:complications / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012649:Self Concept; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D008691:Methadone