Heroin use is again becoming a significant individual and societal threat in the United States (1991, p. 303). While therapies that will provide effective, long lasting reductions in the use of heroin by abusers are sought, other research is searching for the causal factors associated with heroin addiction (Taschner, 1991, pp. 309 312). As is true in relation to substance abuse generally, the causal factors associated with heroin addiction are subjects of dispute (Strang, 1992, pp. 1222 1223).
Identifying the casual factors associated with heroin addiction would constitute a major advance in efforts to eradicate heroin abuse as a social problem (Gossop, 1991, pp. 1151 1160). Heroin addiction, however, is attributed to a wide range of factors by different authorities on the issue (Strang, 1992, pp. 473 483).
There are four general groups of theories explaining the development of substance abuse behavior including the abuse of heroin. These theory groups are as follows: (1) learning theories holding that persons learn to use heroin and other substances as a means of coping, and holding further that such use eventually becomes addictive; (2) physiological theories holding variously that nutritional deficiencies and genetics lead to substance abuse behavior including heroin addiction; (3) psychoanalytic theories holding variously that childhood experiences, self destructive drives, feelings of inferiority and
insecurity, and locus of control orientations lead to heroin addiction and to the abuse of other substances; and (4) sociological theories holding that societal conditions lead some individuals into substance abuse behaviors including heroin addiction (Jenkins, 1990, pp. 331 336). All of these theories contain some degree of validity. Some of the theories apply to some individuals in some circumstances, while they do not apply to other individuals or even to the same individuals in other circumstances (Pardeck, 1991, ...