1. Attachment and substance use disorders: A review of the literature and a study in drug dependent adolescents
- Author
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Udo Küstner, Andreas Schindler, Peter-Michael Sack, Rainer Thomasius, Brigitte Gemeinhardt, and Jochen Eckert
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Substance-Related Disorders ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Comorbidity ,Models, Psychological ,Severity of Illness Index ,Drug dependent ,Germany ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Attachment theory ,medicine ,Humans ,Psychiatry ,media_common ,Psychological Tests ,Mental Disorders ,Addiction ,Fear ,Opioid-Related Disorders ,Object Attachment ,Social relation ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Case-Control Studies ,Anxiety ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Substance use ,Psychology ,Attachment measures ,Psychopathology - Abstract
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.
- Published
- 2005
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