Treatment for drug addicts needs to be more diverse - UU

Treatment for drug addicts needs to be more diverse if the drug problem on the island of Ireland is to be solved, University of Ulster research has revealed.

Speaking at the Psychological Society of Ireland’s annual conference, Paul Cahill, from the School of Psychology at UU, said drug users have to be seen as individuals, not simply as addicts, “if we hope to successfully tackle the social problems of drug use in Ireland”.

Mr Cahill said he had used psychological profiling techniques to categorise drug users into six main groups and believes treatment should be determined by what profile the user falls into.

At present, many treatment regimes are only designed to deal with “hard” drug users, because of limited resources, but UU research indicates that more tailored treatment would lead to increased success rates.

“Similar profiling techniques are already widely used within psychology to determine symptoms relating to psychological conditions, such as depression and anxiety, said Mr Cahill.

“I have employed the same methods to explain unobserved, underlying patterns among drug users.”

The research, entitled: ‘Hidden Profiles in a Hidden Population: Profiling Drug Misuse in Ireland’, involved over 7,000 individuals who were being treated for drug addiction.

The drug users could be categorised into six main groups or profiles:

• Heroin misusers – 47%
• Multiple-combination drug users – 15%
• Methadone misusers –14%
• Clubbers –13%
• Novices- 8%
• Benzodiazepine misusers – 3%

“Due to limited resources, drug treatment centres are forced to focus on treatment regimes such as substitution programmes which are only designed to deal with 'hard' drug users like heroin and methadone,” Mr Cahill said.

“With additional funding more diverse, wide ranging and suitable treatment options should become commonplace, such as social/occupational reintegration and counselling, reflecting the various profiles of those who need help with drug addictions.”

(MB/SP)