Synopsis
Drug dependence is not a single entity. The people who run into problems with their drug taking are not a single, unitary group. The problems that drug takers may develop are not all the same. The differences that exist between individual cases are considerable and, in order to be effective, any treatment intervention must reflect those differences. The sort of treatment that may be appropriate for a 35-year-old intravenous heroin addict with a history of dependence stretching back for 15 years or more may be quite unsuitable for a 16-year-old schoolboy who has been caught by his teacher sniffing glue in the playground. Similarly, the 50-year-old who has become seriously addicted to benzodiazepines prescribed by her family doctor may require a different type of treatment intervention to the 25-year-old who has become a compulsive user of cocaine.
For these reasons, this chapter will not advocate any specific type (or types) of treatment as being in some sense the answer to the question of how best to treat such diverse problems. Instead, it will look more broadly at what a psychological treatment intervention might sensibly attempt, and try to outline some recent treatment approaches that are being used. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to attempt any comprehensive review of all available treatment options, and the reader should be cautioned that there may be many other approaches not mentioned here which may be equally promising and worthy of discussion.
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Gossop, M., Strang, J. (1990). Psychological Treatments. In: Ghodse, H., Maxwell, D. (eds) Substance Abuse and Dependence. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20859-3_7
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