title: Treatment program clients and emergency room patients: a comparison of two drug-using samples.
abstract: Research on institutionalized drug abusers has produced a profile of drug users which at times has been applied improperly to all individuals who manifest drug-related problems. This study compares a sample of drug treatment clients with a sample of emergency room patients who have acute drug reaction problems to ascertain the extent to which the traditional profile of drug abusers accurately describes both of these drug-using groups. The conclusion is that the treatment client sample does resemble the profile, but the emergency room patient sample does not. Treatment implications of this conclusion are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003415:Crime; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D012923:Social Class; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy