Memories of physical and emotional suffering in abstaining substance abusers.
Item
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Title
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Memories of physical and emotional suffering in abstaining substance abusers.
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Identifier
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AAI9618061
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identifier
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9618061
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Creator
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Drucker, Philip Martin.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Neil Macmillan
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental | Sociology, Public and Social Welfare
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Abstract
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A major assertion of the self-medication model of addiction is that drugs are abused for their unique psychoactive consequences. Cocaine is used to reduce the depressive symptoms brought on by cocaine withdrawal. Heroin is used to relieve suffering brought on by a failure to develop appropriate coping skills.;This thesis addressed two issues. The first deals with the assertion, that heroin and cocaine are abused to relieve specific deficits within the addict. It is hypothesized that addicts regardless of their drug use will exhibit depressive symptoms during withdrawal and poor coping skills compared with a nonaddicted control group. The second issue dealt with the addict's memory of their withdrawal state. It is hypothesized that the memory of their feelings in withdrawal will be poor.;The study examined the psychological state of addicts at their peak level of withdrawal and their ability to remember this state several days later. It examined their ability to discriminate imaginary situations depicting high and low levels of suffering. This was used as a measure of their coping ability.;The participants in the study were cocaine, heroin and both cocaine and heroin addicts as well as a control group of college students. Participants were tested twice, 5-6 days apart.;At both sessions, participants were tested for their current level of depression and other psychological variables. Memory was tested using two matched 40-word lists consisting of positive, negative and pain adjectives.;The ability to judge different levels of suffering was tested using the physical suffering questionnaire (PSQ) and the emotional suffering questionnaire (ESQ). The PSQ had situations portraying various levels of physical suffering. The ESQ had varying levels of emotional suffering. Analysis of both the memory and suffering questionnaires included the calculation of Signal Detection parameters to distinguish discrimination from response bias.;Results indicate that depression was not significantly greater for the cocaine group than for the other two addicted groups and that the discrimination of the suffering statements was equally poor for all addicted groups. Memory for withdrawal was generally poor. The speculation of how this may impact on addiction is discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
