Attachment and substance use disorders: a review of the literature and a study in drug dependent adolescents.
Earlier studies on attachment and substance use disorders using the Hazan and Shaver (1987) self-report mainly indicate a link with "avoidant" attachment styles. Studies working with the Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1998) have produced inconsistent results. The present study used the Bartholomew (1990) interview coding system to assess attachment in a sample of 71 German opiate using, drug dependent adolescents (DDAs, age 14 - 25) and 39 non-clinical controls. Fearful attachment was predominant in DDAs, while controls were predominantly secure. Severity of drug use, as assessed with the European Addiction Severity Index (Gsellhofer, Fahrner, & Platt, 1994) and urinalyses, was positively correlated with fearful attachment, but negatively correlated with dismissing attachment. The presence of comorbid psychiatric disorders was associated with fearful attachment but not with addiction severity.
Schindler
Andreas
A
Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany. andreas.schindler@hamburg.de
Thomasius
Rainer
R
Sack
Peter-Michael
PM
Gemeinhardt
Brigitte
B
Küstner
Udo
U
Eckert
Jochen
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009769:Object Attachment; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*