Effectiveness of Drug Treatment Programs

The most often used drug treatment types are inpatient, intensive outpatient, regular outpatient and medication treatment. Inpatient treatment requires that the participant check into a living situation for an extended stay. The length of stay can vary but is usually between one week and one year. Intensive outpatient treatment allows the participant to stay at home while going through the program, which usually meets every weekday for several hours a day. Regular outpatient drug treatment also allows the participant to remain at home and attend meetings once or twice a week. In most cases, the treatment consists of group counseling, drug and alcohol education, random drug screenings and plans for future care.

There are several benefits to inpatient drug treatment programs. The participant is isolated away from his drug connections, drug friends and locations that serve as triggers for the desire to do drugs. tThe inpatient program is a total immersion program with the opportunity to attend a larger number of counseling and education sessions because the participant is there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of the biggest issues with an inpatient program is the requirement that the participant live at the facility, which means not being able to go to work each day. If the participant's insurance does not cover the treatment, it can also be costly. Benefits from an intensive outpatient program include the fact that the participant resides at home, which means he can continue to go to work each day and interact with his family and friends, while still receiving intensive education and coping skills training. Issues that can arise in an intensive outpatient program include the ability for the participant to continue interacting with drug connections and use drugs. Triggers for drug use are still going to be in the participant's life before the participant has learned the proper coping skills to avoid those triggers. The benefits of a regular outpatient program include the fact that participants only meet once or twice a week, which means that jobs, families and social lives do not need to be put on hold while the participant goes through treatment. Issues with such a program can include the less frequent meetings, which may not be enough support for the drug user to maintain a clean and sober lifestyle.

Costs for drug treatment programs can range from free to extremely expensive. Many community-based regular outpatient programs are free of charge but offer little more than weekly group sessions and encouragement to attend AA or NA. Intensive outpatient programs can be costly because of the need for a facility with trained staff members and educational materials. Inpatient programs are the most expensive because they offer residential care including bed, heat, food and medical personnel. Medical insurance plans will sometimes pay for the cost of treatment. It is important to check with the user's insurance company to find out what, if any, of the cost will be covered. Insurance coverage is sometimes the determining factor in whether a participant will take part in an inpatient program or an intensive outpatient program to get started. .

A recent study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse concluded that drug treatment works if the participant continues treatment following the initiial program implementation. A study that was published in the Journal of American Medical Association in 2004, found that drug abuse treatment has a similar success rate to any other chronic disease treatment efforts, including diabetes or asthma. It is known that for drug abusers who are prescribed medications to help them maintain sobriety, approximately 50 percent of them stop taking the medication. Drug treatment also introduces the concept of changing social behaviors likely to trigger a desire to use drugs. Studies show that less than 30 percent of those who have received treatment for drug abuse continue to avoid those social behaviors once the treatment program is completed. The treatment programs with the highest success rates have been those that incorporate several elements of the user's life, including social behaviors, mental health therapy, family therapy, medical intervention and maintenance programs. Research has also indicated that the most successful drug treatment programs are those that have a component of after care involved. Studies in Delaware as well as California have shown that when an aftercare program is used in conjunction with standard drug abuse treatment, there is a 50 to 70 percent reduction in relapse risk compared to those who do not participate in any type of relapse prevention after care program.

For drug users and their families, drug treatment programs can be an effective method for getting back on track, however, in the end, it is up to the drug user to focus on sobriety and maintain aftercare. Which type of program the drug user chooses to enter involves a careful inventory of the level of use, the family dynamic, the insurance coverage and the user's individual needs.