Group psychotherapy for substance abuse patients: development of a technique

A voluntary open psychotherapy group in a Veterans Drug Dependence Treatment Center was conducted along psychodynamic-integrative lines. Interpretations were first made as with psychiatric patients. These patients regressed to drug use or dropped out. The style was changed to emphasize pertinent general questions. The derivatives of personality problems emerged in the discussions. "Samplers" (patients attending less than five times) and "regulars" (patients attending more than five times) of 104 sessions are compared with one another and the total Center population. Reviewing the literature confirmed our impression that this group treatment was worthwhile.