EVALUATION OF EXISTING TREATMENTS FOR DRUG ABUSE

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Existing treatments for drug abuse often show wide variations in effectiveness, both across treatment programs and across patients. A better understanding of the factors contributing to such variations could lead to identification and implementation of changes that promote increased treatment effectiveness. This project, conducted by the Drug Abuse Treatment Evaluation Unit headed by Dr. John Ball, applies a comprehensive schema for evaluating drug abuse treatment programs in four areas: patient history and characteristics, program characteristics, treatment services provided, and treatment outcome. Current studies are (1) evaluating the validity of information self-reported by opiate addicts, e.g., criminal behavior; (2) applying time series analysis to the evaluation of outcomes of methadone maintenance treatment, and (3) evaluating the effect of prior drug abuse treatment on the outcome of short-term inpatient detoxification. Another component of this project is evaluating factors associated with drug users seeking treatment in a hospital mergence room. Drug users may present to a hospital emergency room for a variety of reasons, some clinically appropriate (e.g., a life-threatening medical consequence of drug use) and some less efficient uses of the health care system (e.g., non-urgent medical condition, attempt to enter substance abuse treatment). There is little data available on the relationship between emergency room visits by drug users and their seeking of and participation in drug abuse treatment. This study, in collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Francis Scott Key Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, collects data on the sociodemographic, drug use, and treatment-seeking behavior of an unselected series of drug users visiting an urban hospital emergency room.