The phenomenological structure of drug-induced ego states. II. Barbiturates and sedative-hypnotics: phenomenology and implications.

Empirically derived descriptions of experiential states, induced by heavy, chronic consumption of drugs, provide valuable information for treatment personnel as well as for scientists studying drug abuse or pharmacology. A 7-year program of research has studied persons committed to heavy, long-term use of several prominent substances of abuse. This report results from that research and provides a phenomenological description of the psychological state induced by heavy, chronic use of barbiturates and sedative-hypnotics. Interview, Q-sort and semantic differential data indicate the barbiturate state is intensely unpleasant: a state in which users lose desired characteristics, take on undesired characteristics, engage in self-destructive acts, and emerge in worse condition than before entering it. Explaining why people choose to enter such a state is difficult. Several theoretical alternatives for doing so are considered. Psychotherapy with these individuals must deal with the theme of abandonment/rejection that permeates their lives and with the diffuse hostility, expectations of failure and defeat, self-destructive tendencies, and feelings of hopelessness that they display. Suggestions are presented for treatment of individual cases.