Restraint is a construct of potential use for understanding addictive behaviors. In terms of alcohol and other drug use, restrained individuals are cognitively and behaviorally preoccupied with controlling their substance use. previous work in the context of alcohol consumption suggests that when regulation fails, alcohol and other drug users are more likely to engage in excessive; substance use. This proposition was evaluated in a clinical population of alcohol and other substance users admitted to an inpatient treatment program. A confirmatory factor analysis of alcoholics' responses to the Temptation and Restraint Inventory, a measure of drinking restraint, replicated the two second-order factors previously reported for social drinkers: Cognitive and Emotional Preoccupation (CEP) and Cognitive and Behavioral Control (CBC). CEP scores were a negative predictor of pretreatment percentage of days abstinent and a positive predictor of percentage of drinking days engaged in heavy drinking, drink; per drinking day, and drinking consequences. CBC scores were a negative predictor only of drinks per drinking day. An analysis of drug users' responses to a drug version of the Temptation and Restraint Inventory also replicated the previously found CEP and CBC factors Scores on the CEP factor were a positive predictor and scores on the CBC factor a negative predictor of drug use frequency. CEP scores also were a positive predictor of drug use consequences. The data taken together represent a potentially useful extension of the restraint construct to alcoholics and other drug users and support a multifactorial characterization of substance use restraint as reflecting a reciprocal relationship between restricted and excessive substance use.
