THREE STUDIES OF THE MMPI AS A PREDICTIVE INSTRUMENT IN METHADONE MAINTENANCE

The current popularity of methadone maintenance treatment appears justified largely on the strength of outcome studies which demonstrate its general effectiveness in facilitating the social rehabilitation of heroin addicts. Gear-ing (1971), for example, reports that only one percent of patients remaining in treatment revert to heroin use, that 80 to 90 percent remain free of other serious drug abuse, and that a majority of patients complete vocational or academic training, become self-supporting and refrain from their prior patterns of criminality and involvement with law enforcement agencies,, Representative findings such as these are impressive both in absolute terms and in comparison to the typically lower success rates estimated for alternative treatment approaches. Yet,the generalization of these findings to a larger universe of heroin addicts is, of course, limited by both systematic and random factors which influence patients' attraction to and acceptance by methadone maintenance programs. Likewise, the merits of methadone maintenance relative to alternative treatment approaches cannot be truly evaluated on the basis of largely partisan oit come research in which methodological decisions seem to guarantee results that conform to extra-scientific dictates. Even discounting these perhaps incurable methodological shortcomings, the potential benefits of methadone maintenance seem well-established at this time, at least for those patients who are willing, able, and eligible to remain in treatment, Regardless of its overall effectiveness, it is clear that a majority of heroin addicts do not seek methadon