Interpersonal relationships in heroin use by men and women and their role in treatment outcome.

The majority of both male and female heroin addicts entering a city treatment program were introduced to heroin by a male. But by contrast with the males, females were in many cases introduced to heroin by another woman, more often used drugs with persons of both sexes, and were more likely to be living with a current or former heroin user at intake. Encouragement to give up drugs was reported more frequently by both men and women than attempts to discourage their entry into treatment, but only the encouragement of the spouse or opposite-sexed partner was significantly related to treatment outcome.