Substance use and alcohol abuse during pregnancy are significant public health concerns. Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a withdrawal syndrome that infants exposed to opioids may experience in the first few days of life. For most infants with NAS, exposure to opioids occurs during pregnancy while they are fetuses. Similarly, prenatal alcohol…

In this commentary, we critically review the contribution of the sociologist Erving Goffman (1922-1982) to understanding recovery from problem drug use. Previous research has indicated that drug users have a "spoiled identity" and must restore a "normal" or "unspoiled" identity in order to recover. This argument has been linked to Goffman's…

Many clients who undergo methadone maintenance (MM) treatment for heroin and other opiate dependence prefer abstinence from methadone. Attempts at methadone detoxification are often unsuccessful, however, due to distressing physical as well as psychological symptoms. Outcomes from an MM client who voluntarily participated in an Acceptance and…

This study examined the relationship between drug preference, drug use, drug availability, and personality among individuals (n = 100) in treatment for substance abuse in an effort to replicate the results of an earlier study (Feldman, Kumar, Angelini, Pekala, & Porter, 2007) designed to test prediction derived from Eysenck's (1957, 1967)…

In a randomized test of mixed-mode data collection strategies, 386 participants in the Raising Healthy Children (RHC) Project were either (a) asked to complete a survey via the Internet and later offered the opportunity to complete the survey in person or (b) first offered an in-person survey, with the Web follow-up. The Web-first condition…

This study analyzed routine locations (activity spaces) of urban adolescents enrolled in a substance abuse treatment program to understand the relationship between their spatial lives and health outcomes such as substance use and mental health. Sixty-eight adolescents were interviewed and produced a list of 199 locations identified as most…

Context: Illicit drug use is common in rural areas, but very little research has investigated rural populations' access to drug abuse services. Purpose: To describe the current state of the scientific literature on access to drug abuse services in rural areas and suggest directions for future research. Methods: We performed a literature review of…

One variation of contingency management involves providing vouchers with monetary value for the provision of a biological sample indicating no recent drug use. These vouchers can be exchanged for goods or services. The schedule with which the vouchers are disbursed has been studied and results suggest that those schedules that incorporate…