Perinatal substance abusers: Factors influencing treatment retention

This study investigated the association between two demographic and two psychological variables and treatment retention for 65 perinatal substance abusers. Subjects who lived in the community while attending day treatment were 6.125 times more likely to drop out than subjects who lived in a program-operated shelter (p <.0001). An interaction was found for pregnancy status and antisocial personality disorder (p <.0478). Subjects who were both pregnant and antisocial were 4.876 times more likely to remain in treatment than those who were neither pregnant nor antisocial. Degree of "treatment resistance," measured by the MMPI Negative Treatment Indicators (TRT) Scale, did not predict dropout. These findings indicate that supportive housing can play an important role in preventing dropout for perinatal substance abusers. Additionally, pregnancy may present a "window" of opportunity for treating a hard to reach population, drug abusing women with comorbid ASP. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.