This is a pilot exploration of the ways in which a pattern of non-medical drugs use in a particular setting may strengthen or weaken or otherwise influence or be influenced by ego functioning; that is, the processes involved in people's adaptation to external and internal realities. The general purpose of the study is to develop methods and procedures for a larger scale study, and to assure the feasibility of testing certain hypotheses concerning the interrelationships between heavy drug use and ego functioning. Assessments are focussed on different styles of drug use, different functions drugs are perceived to have to users, and the precise adaptive and maladaptive qualities of different drug uses and styles on people's capacity to manage their inner states and external life situations. The investigators are planning to complete interviews of seventy subjects (not in treatment) who use either narcotics or barbiturates fairly heavily (three times a week or more), and comparison groups of ten subjects in methadone maintenance programs, ten alcoholics, and ten subjects who do not use either alcohol or drugs to any great extent.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter