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(Sanchez-Craig et al. 1984, Foy et al. 1984) that subjects with high dependence are less likely to control their drinking, that is to drink in moderation at follow up than are subjects with low dependence. The relationship between dependence in the psychological sense and coping strategies remains to be tested.
While Litman and her colleagues have directly compared the predictive ability of frequency of use of coping strategies with the perceived effectiveness of coping strategies and found the latter to have greater predictive power with reference to drinking outcome, the present study aims to examine the relationship between the nature of coping strategies used, the frequency of their use and degrees of dependence. The purpose is to identify whether different coping strategies are associated with different degrees of dependence and whether the use of coping strategies changes over time with changes in degree of dependence. Previous work has suggested that people with low dependence do not use many coping strategies, (they do not need to, Litman et al. 1984) and one of the aims of the present study is to re-examine this question using a psychological construct of dependence.
In the literature reviewed, the focus on coping strategies has been concerned with their relationship with substance misuse outcomes; a relationship between coping and relapse during a period of abstinence or control has been demonstrated, though the effectiveness of type versus number of coping strategies with reference to outcome has varied with different methodologies and definitions. The relationship between type of coping and type of outcome is also unclear due to the different definitions used in drinking status and the fact that smoking outcomes have more usually been treated as dichotomous, thus not giving much clue as to the role of degree of dependence in differentiating outcomes. In the present study, the measurement of coping strategies is used in the attempt to identify processes in the reduction of dependence, an outcome of a different nature to those described above.
6.5 Adaptation and validation of the Coping Behaviours Inventory for use with heroin addicts
Existing scales target either a particular substance or a particular age group and are therefore not suitable for use by multiple drug users of all ages in the help seeking population nor for comparison between the users of different drugs. In order to measure coping in the heroin sub-sample of the present study, it was necessary to adapt an existing validated instrument for the measurement of coping in relapse and survival following treatment for alcohol dependence and misuse.
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