Opiate-Addicted Parents in Methadone Treatment: Long-Term Recovery, Health, and Family Relationships

ABSTRACT

Few studies follow the lives of opiate-addicted parents. The authors examined a 12-year follow-up of 144 parents in methadone treatment and their 3- to 14-year-old children. Parent mortality was high. Among survivors, drug use and treatment, incarceration, residential and family disruptions, and health problems were common. Moderate and long-term recovery were associated with consistent methadone treatment, further education, employment, and fewer relationship disruptions. Earlier depression, deviant friends, and poor coping skills predicted continued drug problems. Thus, interventions should include treatment for depression and build skills for avoiding and refusing drugs, coping with stress, and maintaining recovery-supportive friendships.

KEYWORDS:

• Opiates
• family
• long-term follow-up
• longitudinal

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA17908-01). Focus on Families was conducted by the Social Development Research Group, University of Washington, in cooperation with Therapeutic Health Services of Seattle, WA.