Therapeutic Progression in Abused Women Following a Drug-Addiction Treatment Program

Abstract

This study explored the prevalence of victims of abuse and the therapeutic progression among women who sought treatment for drug addiction. A sample of 180 addicted Spanish women was assessed. Information was collected on the patients' lifetime history of abuse (psychological, physical, and/or sexual), socio-demographic factors, consumption variables, and psychological symptoms. Of the total sample, 74.4% ( n = 134) of the addicted women had been victims of abuse. Psychological abuse affected 66.1% ( n = 119) of the patients, followed by physical abuse (51.7%; n = 93) and sexual abuse (31.7%; n = 57). Compared with patients who had not been abused, the addicted women with histories of victimization scored significantly higher on several European version of the Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI) and psychological variables. Specifically, physical abuse and sexual abuse were related to higher levels of severity of addiction. Regarding therapeutic progression, the highest rate of dropout was observed among victims of sexual abuse (63.5%; n = 33), followed by victims of physical abuse (48.9%; n = 23). Multivariate analysis showed that medical and family areas of the EuropASI, as well as violence problems and suicide ideation, were the main variables related to physical and/or sexual abuse. Moreover, women without abuse and with fewer family problems presented the higher probability of treatment completion. The implications of these results for further research and clinical practice are discussed.

The psychological subtype of intimate partner violence and its effect on mental health: a systematic review with meta-analyses

“…Another 37 studies examined the association between psychological violence and depression; twenty-nine of the identified studies found a significant association [ 13 , 34 , 35 , 39 , 42 , 45 – 47 , 49 , 53 – 73 ], while five studies found a non-significant association [ 50 , 74 – 77 ]. Three studies did not report test-statistics [ 46 , 78 , 79 ]. For Hazen et al [ 61 ] and Lawrence et al [ 13 ] significant findings varied across subtypes.…”

Profiles of mothers who seek treatment for substance use disorders in a clinical centre

“…One surprising and worrisome piece of data obtained in this study is the high rate of mothers in the sample who had been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse (77.5 per cent). Although recent studies about the relationship between lifetime abuse and addictions have shown high rates of physical and sexual abuse among women seeking treatment for addictions problems (Fernández-Montalvo et al , 2015; Fernández-Montalvo, López-Goñi, Arteaga, Cacho and Azanza, 2017), no previous studies with mothers have been carried out. Nonetheless, the rate of abuse found in these patients was higher than expected, and it constituted the main variable related to mothers.…”

Impact of a trauma intervention on reducing dropout from substance use disorder treatment.

“…The prevalence of abuse is higher among patients in substance use disorder treatment (SUD-T) than in the general population (Jakubczyk et al, 2014;Olaya et al, 2015). The rates of physical abuse in patients with substance use disorder range from 18.0% to 53.7% (Fernández-Montalvo et al, 2015;Grundmann et al, 2018) and, in the case of sexual abuse, from 9.2% to 31.7% (Fernández-Montalvo et al, 2015;Fernández-Montalvo et al, 2017). Compared to patients without a history of abuse, patients who have experienced these traumatic events present a worse psychopathological profile and higher rates of treatment dropout (Brems et al, 2004;Daigre et al, 2015;López-Goñi et al, 2018).…”