Drugs and Addict Lifestyles. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Issues 7.

This report is the seventh in a series intended to summarize the empirical research findings and major theoretical approaches relating to the issues of drug use and abuse. This volume reviews the research undertaken to describe the lifestyle histories of heroin users. These research findings are formulated and detailed to provide the reader with the purpose, methodology, findings and conclusions of each study reviewed. The first set of research reviews describes the life styles of heroin users by typologies and careers. The second section of the book traces the history of addiction from occasional use to initiation, abstinence/relapse and maturing out. This section concludes with summaries of followup studies of narcotic addicts. Part 3 reviews research on the characteristics of heroin addicts described under the topics of psychological patterns, female addicts, and ethnic and special groups. The remaining two sections include research reviews concerning drug use patterns and theories of addiction. (Author/SJL)