Promoting adherence to chemical dependence (CD) treatment has been a challenge in several contexts, especially regarding adolescents. Such challenge has been related to assumptions about who adolescents are, what is understood by dependence and about its treatment. Twelve professionals from a CD outpatient service in the region of Ribeirão Preto (SP) were interviewed about the meanings they attributed to the following subjects: adolescence, substance use/abuse and its treatment and adherence to such treatment. It was observed that the interviewees considered several determinants for explaining adolescence; however, there was a predominance of individualizing arguments regarding this subject. Chemical Dependence was understood as the individual's loss of self-control; consequently the aim of the treatment was favoring this individual's reflection about the role of substance use in his/her life. The interviewees showed a critical discourse, seeking for institutional and staff-related factors as well as for external factors to explain treatment adherence. The discourses of the interviewees are discussed in terms of their interrelations with the literature about the subjects approached in the interviews and its implications for CD treatment.
Treatment adherence; Substance abuse; Adolescence