For the considered outcomes, it seems that adding any psychosocial support to standard maintenance treatments do not add additional benefits. Data do not show differences also for contingency approaches, contrary to all expectations. Duration of the studies was too short to analyse relevant outcomes such as mortality. It should be noted that the control intervention used in the studies included in the review on maintenance treatments, is a program that routinely offers counselling sessions in addition to methadone; thus the review, actually, did not evaluate the question of whether any ancillary psychosocial intervention is needed when methadone maintenance is provided, but the narrower question of whether a specific more structured intervention provides any additional benefit to a standard psychosocial support. These interventions probably can be measured and evaluated by employing diverse criteria for evaluating treatment outcomes, aimed to rigorously assess changes in emotional, interpersonal, vocational and physical health areas of life functioning.
Subliminal stimulation of symbiotic fantasies as an aid in the treatment of drug abusers.
Forty-seven heroin addicts being treated at the New York VA Methadone Clinic were divided into an experimental and a control group. In addition to the regular methadone treatment program, both groups received subliminal exposures to a verbal message for 24 sessions (4 times a week for 6 weeks). The messages were MOMMY AND I ARE ONE (experimental) and PEOPLE ARE WALKING (control), administered under double-blind conditions. In keeping with the main hypothesis, the experimental subjects, when compared with controls, showed a greater decrease in their use of heroin and other illicit drugs during the postintervention period. Additionally, on a follow-up questionnaire, the experimental subjects reported being more in control of their drug habits and more effective in their work than did those in the control group. Also, analysis of the patients' reported dreams revealed that the experimental group had more dreams containing positive interactions with a significant woman or son than did the control group.