Citation

Santis R, Hidalgo CG, Jaramillo A, Hayden V, Armijo I, Lasagna A. J. Subst. Abuse Treat. 2013; 44(1): 61-70.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Camino El Alba 12351, Las Condes, 7620002 Santiago, Chile.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jsat.2012.03.003

PMID

22520275

Abstract

Only a small fraction of drug users worldwide enter treatment each year. We evaluated the efficacy of a systemic family outreach intervention (SFOI) for young, untreated drug users, using a quasi-experimental design in which the experimental group (EG) received SFOI and the control group (CG) received traditional outreach work (OW). Both pre- and post-treatment, we administered the Addiction Severity Index-6 (ASI-6), the Family Environment Scale (FES), and tests of parental practices and risky behavior. Post-treatment, there was a fivefold improvement on the ASI-6 and a significant worsening on the conflict sub-scale of the FES in the EG as compared with the CG. SFOI was more efficacious than OW in reducing drug use in the drug user's home environment. The increased conflict in the EG might be explained by parents' increased awareness of abnormal behaviors and implementation of strategies to protect their children.

Language: en