Incomplete mourning and addict/family transactions: a theory for understanding heroin abuse.
In summary, this theory is based on the premise that death, separation, and loss are significant etiological factors in heroin-addict families. The death and death-related variables are integral parts of a homeostatic pattern that keeps the drug-abusing member helpless and dependent on staying at home with the family. Within the complex set of feedback mechanisms involved in the drug-taking process lies an overall sense of family hopelessness and lack of purpose or meaning in life which accompanies the repetitive drug-sustaining cycle of family interactions.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003643:Death; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D012067:Religion; D012380:Role