Motivation to withdraw from heroin: a factor‐analytic study

A 30‐item motivation scale and a locus of control scale were given to 165 heroin users within the first 2 days of a new attempt to withdraw from heroin. Factor analysis of the motivation items revealed three factors, the largest of which was labelled ‘private affairs motivation’ (factor one), and accounted for 26.5% of the variance. A significant positive correlation was found between scores on this factor and the I sub‐scale for locus of control. The other two factors were labelled ‘external constraints’ (7.2% of the variance) and ‘negative effects of heroin use’ (6.6% of the variance). There was a tendency for subjects attending community drug teams to have lower scores on these factors than those attending other types of agencies, especially inpatient detoxification wards. Further research is required to examine the relationship between the different motivations to withdraw from heroin and other important variables such as withdrawal outcome.