Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Study 1: Objective: A new 29 scale diagnostic battery measuring attachments and clinical issues of alcoholics was tested. Method: The participants were 27 alcoholics (37.44 years old) from an inpatient treatment center. The 118 controls were selected from a larger normative sample of businesses and organizations stratified and matched on sex, socioeconomic status, and age. They completed the Attachment and Clinical Issues Questionnaire (ACIQ), a 29 scale test battery (Lindberg & Thomas, 2011; Lindberg, Fugett, & Thomas, 2012). Results: A Discriminant Functional Analysis revealed significant differences. The groups also differed on 17 scales in predicted fashions and the standard deviations pointed to the need to consider individual differences. Study 2: Objective: Could it be that the alcoholics were merely blaming their past Would High School and College students only predicted to be alcoholics show similar patterns of responses on the ACIQ Method: 350 high school and college students (108 male, 242 female) completed the ACIQ, the CUGE, (Aertgeerts et al, 2000.) and the MAST (Crews and Sher, 1992). Results: The scores on the Mast and CUGE were added together as a measure of predicted alcoholism, and this drinking probability correlated with 23 scales in predicted directions. Summary: Three conclusions are offered: a) Alcoholics and adolescents only predicted to be alcoholics have insecure attachments and related clinical issues, b) individual differences in paths to alcoholism need to be considered in treatment, and c) the ACIQ represents promise as a new differential diagnostic

Biography

Dr. Marc A. Lindberg received his PhD in 1976 at the Ohio State University. He has 16 publications, is on the editorial board of the Journal of Genetic Psychology, and is a reviewer for several psychology and addiction journals. He has recently published works on obesity as an addiction and with Dr. Fugett, a PhD from the U of Kansas, published psychometric articles outlining new procedures to measure the treatment issues of alcoholics. Dr. Fugett is a quantitative experimental psychologist published in the area, and Drs. Koontz and Chevalier have over 25 years of clinical experience working with alcoholics and drug addicts