ABSTRACT
Studies of opiate addiction have identified a matrix of influences composed of pharmacological, psychological, and socioenvironmental influences contributing to the etiology and course of the disorder. With the onset of opiate addiction in man, maintenance of the addictive course is influenced by a number of factors. The most viable technique for controlling drug use that the psychotherapist has at his disposal is to attempt to increase the probability of behavior incompatible with drug use. Clinical observation suggests that two individuals with varying personalities or character structures, taking the same dosage of morphine, might form classically disparate reflexes to such a drug at markedly different rates, and consequently, the conditioning may be extinguished at different rates. The animal model has replicated in many respects the observation that drugs which have a high abuse potential in man are those which also display similar characteristics leading to their self-administration in animals, under a variety of conditions.
