Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:34:19.979Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Precipitants of Amphetamine Addiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. S. Bell*
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Research Unit, Callan Park Hospital, Rozelle, N.S.W. 2039, Australia

Extract

For the purposes of this paper the term ‘precipitant’ is defined as a new circumstance associated in time with the onset of the addiction. If the precipitant is merely the ‘final staw’ in a long chain of causal circumstances, no particular value can be attached to its identification. If, on the other hand, the precipitant brings into operation the background causal factors leading to addiction, it has important practical and therapeutic implications. It could be expected that this type of precipitant might persist during the addiction and its disappearance might be associated with remission of the addiction.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamson, J. D., and Schmale, A. H. (1965). ‘Object loss, giving up, and the onset of psychiatric disease.’ Psychosomatic Medicine, 27, 557–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bailey, M. B., and Stewart, J. (1967). ‘Normal drinking by persons reporting previous problem drinking.’ Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 28, 305–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ball, J. C. (1967). ‘The reliability and validity of interview data obtained from 59 narcotic drug addicts.’ American Journal of Sociology, 72, 650–4.Google Scholar
Bell, D. S. (1970). ‘Drug addiction.’ Bulletin on Narcotics, 22/2, 2132.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., and Birley, J. L. T. (1968). ‘Crisis and life changes and the onset of schizophrenia.’ Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 9, 203–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canter, F. M. (1968). ‘The requirement of abstinence as a problem in institutional treatment of alcoholics.’ Psychiatric Quarterly, 42, 217–31.Google Scholar
Casey, R. L., Masuda, M., and Holmes, T. H. (1967). ‘Quantitative study of recall of life events.’ Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 239–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chein, I., Gerard, D. L., Lee, R. S., and Rosenfeld, E. (1964). Narcotics, Delinquency and Social Policy. The Road to H. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Davies, D. L. (1962). ‘Normal drinking in recovered alcoholics.’ Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 23, 94104.Google Scholar
Davies, D. L. Scott, D. F., and Malherbe, M. E. L. (1969). ‘Resumed normal drinking in recovered psychotic alcoholics.’ International Journal of the Addictions, 4, 187–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. (1967). ‘Social status, stress, and psychological symptoms.’ American Journal of Public Health, 57, 625–32.Google Scholar
Erikson, E. H. (1959a). ‘Growth and crises of the healthy personality.’ Psychological Issues, 1, 50100.Google Scholar
Erikson, E. H. (1959b). ‘The problem of ego identity.’ Psychological Issues, 1, 101–71.Google Scholar
Gallant, D. M., Faulkner, M., Stoy, B., Bishop, P. M., and Langdon, D. (1968). ‘Enforced clinic treatment of paroled criminal alcoholics.’ Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 29, 7783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerard, D. L., and Saenger, G. (1966). Out-patient Treatment of Alcoholism. Toronto: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glass, G. S., and Bowers, M. B. (1970). ‘Chronic psychosis asssociated with long-term psychotomimetic drug abuse.’ Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 97103.Google Scholar
Glickman, L., and Blumenfield, M. (1967). ‘Psychological determinants of “LSD reactions”.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 145, 7983.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goddard, K. E., Broder, G., and Wenar, C. (1961). ‘Reliability of pediatric histories.’ Pediatrics, 28, 1011–8Google Scholar
Haggard, E. A., Brekstad, A., and Skard, A. G. (1960). ‘On the reliability of the anamnestic interview.’ Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 61, 311–8.Google Scholar
Higgins, J. W. (1953). ‘Psychodynamics in the excessive drinking of alcohol.’ Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 69, 713–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, T. H., and Rahe, R. H. (1967). ‘The social readjustment rating scale.’ Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–8.Google Scholar
Hudgens, R. W., Morrison, J. R., and Barchha, R. G. (1967). ‘Life events and onset of primary affective disorders.’ Archives of General Psychiatry, 16, 134–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, M. A., Spilken, A., and Norman, M. (1969). ‘Relationship of life change, maladaptive aggression, and upper respiratory infection in male college students.’ Psychosomatic Medicine, 31, 3144.Google Scholar
James, I. P. (1969). delinquency and heroin addiction in Britain.' British Journal of Criminology, 9, 108–24.Google Scholar
Jordan, A. K. (1969). ‘Rehabilitation hostels for homeless alcoholic men.’ Paper delivered to ANZAAS 41st Congress, Adelaide.Google Scholar
Katz, J. L., Weiner, H., Gallagher, T. F., and Hellman, L. (1970). ‘Stress, distress and ego defences.’, Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 131–42.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. E. (1965). ‘Normal drinking by former alcohol addicts.’ Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 26, 247–57.Google Scholar
Kraft, T. (1968). ‘Social anxiety and drug addiction.’ British Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2, 192–5.Google Scholar
Maerov, A. S. (1965). ‘Prostitution: a survey and review of 20 cases.’ Psychiatric Quarterly, 39, 675701.Google Scholar
Maddison, D., and Viola, A. (1968). ‘The health of widows in the year following bereavement.’ Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 12, 297306.Google Scholar
Murphy, G. E., Kuhn, N. O., Christensen, R. F., and Robins, E. (1962a). ‘“Life stress” in a normal population: a study of 101 women hospitalized for normal delivery.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 134, 150–61.Google Scholar
Murphy, G. E., Kuhn, N. O., Christensen, R. F., and Robins, E. (1962b). ‘Stress, sickness and psychiatric disorder in a “normal” population: a study of 101 young women.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 134, 228–36.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K., Dienelt, M. N., Klerman, G. L., Lindenthal, J. J., and Pepper, M. P. (1969). ‘Life events and depression.’ Archives of General Psychiatry, 21, 753–60.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, A. Z., Feldman, D. J., Feibel, C., Frank, J. A., Cohen, M., Berger, S., Fleetwood, M. F., and Greenberg, S. S. (1956). ‘A treatment program for the alcoholic in industry.’ Journal of the American Medical Association, 161, 827–36.Google Scholar
De Quincey, T., (1821). The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Reprinted, 1948. London: The Folio Society, p. 147.Google Scholar
Rado, S. (1933). ‘The psychoanalysis of pharmacothymia (drug addiction).’ Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2, 123.Google Scholar
Reinert, R. E., and Bowen, W. T. (1968). ‘Social drinking following treatment for alcoholism.’ Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 32, 280–90.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N., and Murphy, G. E. (1967). ‘Drug use in a normal population of young negro men.’ American Journal of Public Health, 57, 1580–96.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, C. M. (1969). ‘Young drug addicts: background and personality.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 148, 6573.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sargent, M. J. (1968). ‘Heavy drinking and its relation to alcoholism—with special reference to Australia.’ Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 4, 146–57.Google Scholar
Selzer, M. L., and Holloway, W. H. (1957). ‘A follow-up of alcoholics committed to a state hospital.’ Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 18, 98120.Google Scholar
Steinberg, H. R., and Durell, J. (1968). ‘A stressful social situation as a precipitant of schizophrenic symptoms: an epidemiological study.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1097–105.Google Scholar
U.S. National Health Survey (1965) Health Interview Responses Compared with Medical Records. Washington: Publ. Health Service Publicat. 1,000—Series 2—No. 7.Google Scholar
Vaillant, G. E. (1966). ‘A twelve-year follow-up of New York narcotic addicts: IV. Some characteristics and determinants of abstinence.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 573–84.Google Scholar
Wainwright, W. H. (1966). ‘Fatherhood as a precipitant of mental illness.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 40–4.Google Scholar
Wenar, C., and Coulter, J. B. (1962). ‘A reliability study of developmental histories.’ Child Development, 33, 453–62.Google Scholar
Whitlock, F. A. (1970). ‘The syndrome of barbiturate dependence.’ Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 391–6.Google Scholar
Wikler, A., and Rasor, R. W. (1953). ‘Psychiatric aspects of drug addiction.’ American Journal of Medicine, 14, 566–70.Google Scholar
Winick, C. (1964). ‘The life cycle of the narcotic addict and of addiction.’ Bulletin on Narcotics, 16/1, 111.Google Scholar
Wood, H. P., and Duffy, E. L. (1966). ‘Psychological factors in alcoholic women.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 341–5.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.