Affect and addiction

Prominent among theories of drug abuse are those that emphasize an effort to cope with painful, unpleasant affects and to replace them with positive affects. In this study, four subjects with varied histories of drug use and abuse rated the relevance of a list of affects to situations from their current life and past. Each subject described three situations involving drug use, three situations following the use of drugs, three in which they wanted to use drugs but did not or could not, and three unrelated to drugs. The ratings for each subject were factor analyzed to determine which groups of situations were similar in terms of their association with specific affect ratings. In addition, the ratings for the group of four subjects were factor analyzed. The group data analysis showed three clusters of situations in terms of those expressing a wish for drugs, those following the use of drugs, and those involving drugs. The individual factor analyses showed individual variation in drug preference, affects associated with the use of drugs, and affects associated with the absence of drugs. However, generally drugs appeared to be associated with the presence of positive affective states and the removal of unpleasant affects associated with other, non-drug use situations.