Mapping-enhanced drug abuse counseling: urinalysis results in the first year of methadone treatment

Abstract

Urinalysis (UA) tests for opiates and cocaine were obtained over a 12-month period for a total of 155 long-term clients who participated in treatment in one of three urban methadone centers. At admission, clients were randomly assigned to "node-link mapping" (n = 82) or "standard" (n = 73) counseling treatment. Node-link mapping is a strategy for visually representing interrelationships between clients' ideas, feelings, and experiences. These multirelational maps are developed (usually by counselors) during individual and group counseling sessions to clarify clients' issues and problems. The results revealed that (a) mapping clients had significantly fewer opiate-positive UAs during months 2-6 of treatment and (b) session attendance was a significant predictor of cocaine-positive UAs over months 2-12 for mapping clients.