Drug dependence and psychological distress in Portuguese patients entering a substance abuse treatment center

Résumé 0

"In the current state of art of drug dependence treatment programs,psychopathological features seem to be associated with negative therapeutic outcome.Drug abuse and especially drug dependence are complex disorders that include cognitive,behavioral and physiologic signs and symptoms. The wide spectrum of symptoms thatcharacterize these disorders are responsible for clinical heterogeneity in terms of clinicalpresentation, severity, vulnerability, sequelae, and comorbidity which by itself accountsfor great suffering and need for help in several areas. Assessment of both drug abuseand psychological distress constitutes a major challenge for professionals working withdrug addicts. In the present descriptive study we tried to explore some key characteristicsof individuals with a drug addiction when starting a treatment program. A total of 107participants visiting a large metropolitan Portuguese addiction treatment center participatedin this study, 90.7% were male, aged between 22 and 55 years (M = 34.84, SD = 6.44).The results indicate the existence of some relationships between severity of drug addictionand psychopathological symptoms."