Depression and hostility as predictors of long-term outcomes among opiate users.

Aims: This study used data from the national Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS) to investigate the associations that pre-treatment depression and hostility have with drug use and criminal behavior at 1 year and 5 year follow-up in patients with and without additional treatment involvement in the year prior to each follow-up.

Design: Following a naturalistic, non-experimental evaluation design, admissions to methadone treatment were followed up approximately 1 and 5 years later. Data analysis was conducted using multiple logistic regression.

Setting: Eighteen programs from DATOS were included.

Participants: An analytic sample consisting of 727 patients at 1 year follow-up and 432 patients at 5 year follow-up was included.

Findings: Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that greater depression predicted less drug use in the year preceding each follow-up, whereas greater hostility predicted increased drug use and more arrests at each follow-up. Furthermore, these predictive relationships appeared only among individuals not involved in additional treatment.

Conclusions: Depression and hostility showed opposite associations with outcomes, underscoring the need to assess these psychological conditions separately and tailor treatment plans appropriately.