Methadone maintenance: The addict's family recreated

Expanding the family systems approach: Cultural, class, developmental and gender influences in drug abuse

“…Some studies have focused on adolescent drug abusers (Coleman, 1980;Egger et al, 1978;Kaufman & Kaufmann, 1979;Klagsbrun & Davis, 1977;Madanes et al, 1980;Schwartzman & Bokos, 1979), while others have used a retrospective approach with older addicts (Alexander & Dibb, 1975;Duncan, 1978;Graeven & Schaef, 1978;Stanton et al, 1978). Still other studies examine the re-creation of family-of-origin problems in the family-of-procreation (Harbin & Mazier, 1975;Seldin, 1972).…”

“…In this formulation, the father is typically described as an alcoholic, who is separated emotionally and physically from the family, and uses physical punishment and harsh discipline. The father is seen either as a straw man to the mother's covert controlling influence in the family, or as distant and clearly secondary to the mother in power (Schwartzman & Bokos, 1979;Stanton et al, 1978). In this model, as well, the mother is overinvolved with the abuser.…”

“…In the literature on family therapy and drug abuse, frequent references are made to the overinvolved nature of drug abusers' families without reference to the cultural context of those ties or relevant comparisons to other populations (Schwartzman & Bokos, 1979;Stanton, 1979;Stanton et al, 1978). Instruments that measure family functioning tend to be normed on White, intact, middle-class families, for example, the Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1981) and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (Olson et al, 1982).…”

Family involvement in illicit drug treatment?

“…The functional nature of the child's problem for the family system, portrayed by Stanton et al [5], suggested a considerable investment on the part of the family in maintaining such problems. These concerns have led observers to represent dependency on methadone maintenance as a predictable recreation of the child's place in the family [27].…”

Coursework and Self‐study in the Family Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Abuse: Expanding Heath and Atkinson's Curriculum

“…These are areas that might not require much coverage, depending on an instructor's priorities, but at the very least deserve a nod. They are: (a) issues of shame that families with an addicted member experience (Fossum & Mason, 1986); (b) a revealing account by Schwartzman and Bokos (1979) of inter-agency struggles among addiction programs in a large metropolitan area and how these competitive patterns recreate family conflicts; and (c) issues of confidentiality when dealing with families of substance abusers (Rinella & Goldstein, 1980).…”