Purpose in life predicts treatment outcome among adult cocaine abusers in treatment
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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

A Protocol for Measuring Cue Reactivity in a Rat Model of Cocaine Use Disorder
Published on: June 18, 2018
Rosemarie A Martin1, Selene MacKinnon, Jennifer Johnson
1Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. rosemarie_martin@brown.edu
Abstract:
A sense of purpose in life has been positively associated with mental health and well-being and has been negatively associated with alcohol use in correlational and longitudinal studies but has not been studied as a predictor of cocaine treatment outcome. This study examined pretreatment purpose in life as a predictor of response to a 30-day residential substance use treatment program among 154 participants with cocaine dependence. Purpose in life was unrelated to cocaine or alcohol use during the 6 months pretreatment. After controlling for age, baseline use, and depressive symptoms, purpose in life significantly (p < .01) predicted relapse to any use of cocaine and to alcohol and the number of days cocaine or alcohol was used in the 6 months after treatment. Findings suggest that increasing purpose in life may be an important aspect of treatment among cocaine-dependent patients.
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