Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 30, Issue 3 , Pages 205-211 , April 2006

Treating complicated grief and substance use disorders: A pilot study

Portions of this work were presented at the 158th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Atlanta, GA, May 26, 2005; at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Orlando, FL, June 21, 2005; and at the 11th International Conference on Treatment of Addictive Behaviors, Santa Fe, NM, February 1, 2006.

Received 13 May 2005 ,Revised 15 November 2005 ,Accepted 8 December 2005.

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PII: S0740-5472(06)00002-X

doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2005.12.001

Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 30, Issue 3 , Pages 205-211 , April 2006