Outpatient and Aftercare Treatment for Substance Use and Addiction: Analysis of Completion and Dropout Rates

Abstract

Treatment for substance use and addiction is very complex and challenging. Clinical outcome data consistently demonstrates that this field has an ongoing problem with treatment dropout. The data for this research were gathered from an outpatient treatment facility over the course of approximately two years. The findings revealed that 60.6% of clients successfully completed outpatient level of care. Around 4 out of 10 clients did not complete treatment (most of these clients dropped out). Out of the clients that completed outpatient level of care, 61.3% continued on to aftercare services. Once in aftercare, survival analysis determined that there was a probability of .83 that women would return after one aftercare meeting and a probability of .81 that men would return. Survival trends further revealed that there was only a probability of .39 that women would make it past five aftercare meetings and a probability of .29 that men would make it past five meetings. Attendance probabilities further declined with each subsequent meeting. The outcome data from this study further highlights the ongoing need to better retain clients in outpatient treatment and aftercare. The findings from this study may be of practical use to clinical directors, alcohol and drug counselors, case managers, social workers, and psychotherapists working within the field of substance use and addiction.