A history of sexual, emotional, or physical abuse predicts adjustment during opioid maintenance treatment

Branstetter, Steven A.; Bower, Emily H.; Kamien, Jonathan; Amass, Leslie

doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2007.03.009

« Previous Next »Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 34, Issue 2 , Pages 208-214, March 2008

A history of sexual, emotional, or physical abuse predicts adjustment during opioid maintenance treatment

Selected data from this analysis were presented at an Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies annual conference in poster form.

Steven A. Branstetter, Ph.D.
- Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, 1124 Life Sciences Bldg., 53 Campus Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506-6040. Tel.: +1 304 293 2001x31672; fax: +1 304 293 6606.
Emily H. Bower, M.S.
- Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
Jonathan Kamien, Ph.D.
- Vine Street Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA
- Jonathan Kamien is currently at BioPsych Consulting, 95 East Fairmont Road, Californ, NJ 07830.
Leslie Amass, Ph.D.
- Vine Street Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA
- Leslie Amass is currently at Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Kenilworth, NJ 07033-0530.

Received 12 September 2006; received in revised form 19 February 2007; accepted 4 March 2007. published online 28 June 2007.

Abstract

This study examined how having a history of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse is related to overall functioning as assessed by the Addiction Severity Index during short-term opioid maintenance treatment with either buprenorphine/naloxone or methadone. Furthermore, the relation between abuse history and overall functioning by sex was explored. Participants (N = 268) were opioid-dependent adults entering an outpatient randomized clinical trial with buprenorphine/naloxone and methadone. Latent growth modeling indicated that females with an abuse history entered treatment with more problems in the psychiatric and family domains as compared with females without an abuse history. Over the course of treatment, a history of abuse predicted problems in the psychiatric and alcohol domains. Furthermore, a history of abuse predicted slower recovery times and less recovery overall for females in some domains. Males with an abuse history entered treatment with more severe psychiatric and family problems as compared with males with no history of abuse. Victims of abuse may present to substance abuse treatment with weaknesses in the areas of family relations, psychiatric status, and alcohol use. The nature of these problems and their trajectory over time differed by sex.

Keywords: Sexual abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Opioid treatment, Adult, Latent growth model, Addiction Severity Index, Methadone, Buprenorphine/naloxone