A comparison of dropouts and disciplinary discharges from a therapeutic community

Differences between regular dropouts and disciplinary discharges from drug treatment programs have frequently been overlooked in studies on attrition. Data on symptom, mood, attitudes, and social dysfunction were collected from 104 males under treatment for drug abuse at a VA Hospital A 2 x 2 analysis of variance tested for differences between regular dropouts/disciplinary discharges and heroin/nonheroin subjects. Results showed that the heroin dropouts had the most negative attitude toward the Hard Drug User, and the heroin disciplinary discharges tended to be the most dysfunctional.