Social problems, psychological well-being, and childhood parenting experiences in a community sample of heroin addicts in central London.

Well-validated instruments were used to compare the social adjustment, psychological well-being, and childhood parenting experiences of 105 heroin-dependent people and a matched sample of 103 unemployed people recruited from April to November 2001 via newspaper advertisements and word of mouth in central London. The groups were not homogenous. Both groups had more social and psychological problems than population norms. The unemployed group reported significantly more social and interpersonal problems than the heroin users although they had significantly fewer psychological problems. Childhood parenting experiences were comparable between both groups suggesting this is not a specific cause of heroin dependence.