Incomplete mourning and addict/family transactions: a theory for understanding heroin abuse.

In summary, this theory is based on the premise that death, separation, and loss are significant etiological factors in heroin-addict families. The death and death-related variables are integral parts of a homeostatic pattern that keeps the drug-abusing member helpless and dependent on staying at home with the family. Within the complex set of feedback mechanisms involved in the drug-taking process lies an overall sense of family hopelessness and lack of purpose or meaning in life which accompanies the repetitive drug-sustaining cycle of family interactions.