Childhood maltreatment among Norwegian drug abusers in treatment

This article reports on the investigation of the correlation between the Eu ropean Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI) and the Childhood Trauma Questio nnaire (CTQ) among 102 Norwegian drug abusers admitted to treatment. The ai m of the study is to explore how different types and levels of childhood tr auma and social and psychiatric factors, medical situation and experienced family history are interrelated. The study addresses three main questions: 1) What is the prevalence of different kinds of childhood trauma among drug abusers in treatment? 2) Does type or level of maltreatment in childhood p redict specific substance abuse problems as adults and/or specific social, psychiatric and medical problems as adults? 3) Do substance abuse problems and mental health problems in the primary family predict different types an d levels of childhood maltreatment? Twenty-five per cent of the total sampl e was included in the high-level trauma group and 54% in the intermediate-l evel group. Females had significantly higher scores than males in all types of childhood trauma. The strongest correlations were found between childho od trauma and lifetime psychiatric problems and psychiatric status during t he last 30 days before admission for treatment. More research, and especial ly prospective studies, is needed to clarify the importance of parents' sub stance abuse and psychiatric problems in childhood/adolescent compared with trauma in the client's childhood and the client's current psychiatric stat us.