A peer-reviewed publication written by Dr. Marc A. Lindberg, professor emeritus from the Marshall University’s College of Liberal Arts, and Dana Zeid, a former Marshall undergraduate who is currently a Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University Department of Biobehavioral Health, has been published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. The paper presents their new theory and model of how criminal behavior can develop through addictive elements similar to gambling and drug addiction.
It is titled “Tests of the Attachment Developmental Dynamic Systems Theory of Crime (ADDSTOC): Toward a Differential RDoC Diagnostic and Treatment Approach.” Using systems of interactions robust in mathematical theory and application, it highlights approaches expected to reduce rates of criminal recidivism and substance abuse, in addition to enhancing outcomes in many domains, including HIV prevention, health care and criminal justice system costs and overall public safety.
A second paper, titled “Comparisons of Alcohol and Drug Dependence in Terms of Attachments and Clinical Issues,” was published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse, with Zeid as senior author and former Marshall University graduate student Joshua Carter as second author. This research studied predictors of alcohol and drug abuse in adults enrolled in an inpatient alcohol treatment center and patients receiving treatment for opiate dependence at a methadone treatment clinic. Both had attachment patterns and psychological issues that differed significantly from healthy controls but not from each other. These studies further supported a converging addictions hypothesis, providing new recommendations for researchers and clinicians studying and treating drug and alcohol addicts.
The third publication of 2017 was “Interactive Pathways to Substance Abuse,” published in the journal Addictive Behaviors. For this, a model predicting who is most vulnerable to addiction was described and empirically tested. It was demonstrated that the relationship between adverse childhood events and substance abuse was mediated by attachment patterns and peer drug use. Combined with individualized analysis of attachment patterns and psychological issues in substance abusers, the findings provide more focused targets for comprehensive interventions for these individuals.
Zeid is currently studying the physiological underpinnings of addictive behaviors in graduate school at Penn State, and Lindberg is currently working with the judges of Cabell County, Strictly Business, Prestera Center, Recovery Point and the probation offices in Cabell County on a new study to improve rates of recidivism and relapse to drugs and alcohol.
For more information, contact Lindberg at lindberg@marshall.edu.