Abstract
One hundred young drug abusers who were treated in a therapeutic community ward of the Henderson type were followed an average of 4–5 years. Forty-four percent were completely abstinent from drugs in the last year. Compared to the non-abstinent group, they had milder drug abuse at admittance, were more rarely criminals, alloplastic or having reality testing deficits, and more often carried an image of a divided family. During therapy, they more frequently gave up their membership in the drug culture, and more often improved their education and/or occupational competence and their relationship to parents. At follow-up, they attributed their successful abstinence to both individual and situational factors, the latter mostly to different kinds of close relationships. Those who attributed some help to therapy, had more frequently established a non-ambivalent relationship to spouses or fiancés. The process out of drug abuse in therapy was characterized by several stages: reality confrontation and disclosure, passive subjection to treatment, attachment, alterations of identity and development of social skills.
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