Blatter et al (2002)
- Created by: rebeccahankinson
- Created on: 31-05-15 10:53
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- Blatter et al (2002)
- AIM
- To investigate whether supplying heroin on a medical programme, combined with therapy would reduce cocaine use among participants.
- To investigate what factors were linked to cocaine use in multiple-drug users
- Procedure
- 226 addicts
- 97 females and 168 males all had two previous attempts to give up drugs,
- All has been averagely using heroin for 10 years and cocaine for 7
- Their average age was 30
- Information gathered at the start of the experiment found
- Positive relationship between cocaine use and earning money for illegal sources in previous months
- Positive relationship of cocaine use and contact with drug scene and likely hood of working in the sex industry
- During the experiment
- The participants lived and worked normally, whilst the program prescribed drugs (which where measured recorded) with social and mental support and therapeutic counselling.
- The drugs continued to be prescribed if the users followed rules- not mix or sell drugs
- Attendance of counselling was also compulsory but there was no penalty for use of other drugs which weren't mixed
- Participants were interviewed at the start and then 6 monthly intervals during the 18th month study, which were carried out by independent interviews
- The interview consisted of standard questions to test for mental health and level of addiction
- There was also self report data into which the addicts were asked how they had felt for the past 30 days. the same set of questions were used every interview
- The drug usage was cross checked by urine tests every two months
- 226 addicts
- Results
- Daily cocaine users down 80% and the number of non-users trebled to 106
- 15 participants had started or increased their drug use
- The participants who used cocaine daily injected a mixture of cocaine and herion
- The daily cocaine users still had contact with the drug scene therefore the most associated factors continued e.g. sex trade
- Correlation between self report data and urine tests increased: +0.66 at the start and +0.82 at the end
- The number working in the sex trade reduced from 84 to 7 over the course of the study
- This also happened with illegal income, from 63% to 10%
- Conclusions
- Self report data wasn't completely reliable
- Participants became more honest as correlation between self report data and urine test
- Cocaine use dropped and those who were still users were involved in illegal scenes
- The price of cocaine stayed low therefore other factors were responsible for the decrease in use
- High number of participants continued to attend the clinic due to fee drugs but this helped them as counselling was compulsory
- Results not representative of the general population as they were drug users with a variety of psychiatric problem
- AIM
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