Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:1399-1404
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
Effects of legal pressure on prognosis for treatment of drug dependence
RJ Harford, JC Ungerer and JK Kinsella
The authors found that four measures of legal pressure were either
unrelated or negatively related to retention and outcome in five drug abuse
treatment modalities. This suggests that nonvolunteer clients are likely to
be insufficiently motivated to benefit fully from treatment and their
presence may adversely affect staff morale and prognosis of volunteer
clients. The authors recommend that legal pressure not be used as a basis
for assigning applicants to treatment modalities and suggest that treatment
outcome might be improved by procedures that 1) deal clinically with
motivational differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers, 2) establish
stricter motivational criteria for admitting nonvolunteers, or 3) encourage
enforcement of existing sanctions against violations of stipulations to
treatment.
