OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to present a systematic review of the literature on psychological treatments offered for crack users. METHODS: We performed a systematic review by searching the international and national literature indexed in Medline, SciELO, Lilacs and Web of Science. The keywords used were: crack or crack cocaine or cocaine smokers (crack) and psychosocial treatment or psycotherapy or psychosocial treatment (psychological treatment) and the search included articles published between 2001-2011. RESULTS: A total of 155 articles were found through the descriptors used. The articles were grouped into three dimensions: psychosocial treatments in hospital and continued care, deep breathing and other behavioral techniques and approaches based on Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive-Behavioral and Transtheoretical Model of Change. CONCLUSION: From the studies examined a cast of some interventions that are being studied for the treatment of crack users and some have satisfactory outcomes can be made. The few efforts to compare techniques resulted in evidence of little or no difference among them, even if they register the benefit to users in the application of any of them. There is no consensus on the effectiveness in the treatment of crack users. It seems appropriate and necessary deepening of the studies in this field.
Crack cocaine; psychotherapy; systematic review; clinical trial
