Beliefs about the causes of substance abuse: a comparison of three drugs.

Full Abstract

Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and completed a questionnaire asking about their beliefs regarding the causes of alcohol abuse, cocaine abuse, or cigarette smoking, and about their humanitarian attitudes toward substance abusers. Three major findings emerged: (a) compared to the other substances of abuse, the disease concept was most strongly endorsed for alcohol abuse, the sin conception for cocaine abuse, and the habit conception for smoking; (b) for alcohol abuse only, endorsement of the disease concept was positively related to humanitarian attitudes; and (c) for all three substance types, the sin conception was negatively related to the expression of humanitarian attitudes. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Author information

Author/s: Cunningham, J A (JA); Sobell, L C (LC); Freedman, J L (JL); Sobell, M B (MB);

Affiliation: Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Comparative Study; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of substance abuse (J Subst Abuse), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1994-; vol 6 (issue 2) : pp 219-26

Dates: Created 1995/01/30; Completed 1995/01/30; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 7804020, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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