Psicologia: teoria e prática
Print version ISSN 1516-3687
Abstract
SCADUTO, Alessandro Antonio; BARBIERI, Valéria and SANTOS, Manoel Antônio dos. Therapeutic communities for substance abusers: assessment of treatment outcomes. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2014, vol.16, n.2, pp.156-171. ISSN 1516-3687.
The therapeutic community (TC) is a treatment modality for substance abusers applied in Brazil. However, there are few academic studies of its contributions and limitations, in order to improve the care quality. The objective of the study was to investigate psychological profile changes of patients from a TC, who were assessed in the beginning and in the end of treatment. The participants (seven crack, cocaine and alcohol male abusers) were assessed using a semi‑structured interview guide, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (improved readability form – MMPI‑ IRF) and the Thematic Apperception Test. The results show improvements in psychological functioning in different degrees for two subgroups of participants in the end of treatment, in terms of their personality structure type. This variable seems to mediate the introjection’s quality of the experiences during the treatment.
Keywords : therapeutic communities; treatment effectiveness assessment; drug (abuse); Thematic Apperception Test; Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.