DIFFERENCES IN FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS OF HEROIN INJECTORS AND INHALERS1

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Abstract
Family characteristics of two groups of Navy heroin addicts serving in Vietnam—injectors and inhalers—were compared. Injectors were shown to differ consistently on family characteristics indicating low socioeconomic status (father's education), family instability, and poor relationships with parents. Perceptions of fathers' discipline were particularly deviant in the injector group. Inhalers apparently believed that smoking heroin would not be addictive, but about two thirds of those who used heroin daily by inhalation methods (smoking, sniffing, or snorting) became addicted. Heroin inhalers did not differ significantly on demographical characteristics from other drug users in Vietnam who denied heroin use or from a Navy control sample serving aboard combat ships. Further study is needed of heroin inhaler-injector differences, including prognosis for abandoning heroin use.

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