This study examined three types of individual drug abuse counseling in a private methadone clinic in order to replicate and extend previous work on node-link mapping techniques (two dimensional graphic approaches for visualizing problems and solutions).
Standard counseling, enhanced counseling with free-form maps (f-maps), and enhanced counseling with both f-maps and guide-maps (g-maps) were compared at 6 and 12 months of treatment. Also assessed were differential effects of these counseling conditions on clients with low and high levels of behaviors related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; low-problem versus high-problem clients). Dependent variables included the number of scheduled sessions attended per month, counselor ratings of session characteristics (e.g., powerful, valuable), client psychological status ratings (i.e., self-esteem, depression, and anxiety), and treatment retention (i.e., the number of months clients remained in treatment). Findings replicate and extend prior work that indicated the positive impact of using node-link maps in individual drug abuse counseling. Benefits were particularly strong for clients with high levels of ADHD-related problems. (publisher abstract modified)