Psychosocial correlates of retention in methadone maintenance.

The relationship of 14 background characteristics, 11 psychological test scores, and 4 psychiatric ratings with 207 heroin addicts' lengths of stay in methadone maintenance and with whether or not they dropped out of treatment were studied. Living with other addicts was positively related to length of stay and not with dropping out of treatment. Being Black, admitting to past suicide attempts, and describing oneself as vigorous and active at admission were inversely related to dropping out. The results suggested that previously reported correlates of program retention may not be generalizable across common treatment modalities, such as methadone maintenance, but are only descriptive of the specific programs which were studied.