Pathways to Recovery for Substance Abusers in Treatment

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Substance use dependence with multiple co-occurring problems is increasingly recognized as a chronic, relapsing condition that may last for decades and require multiple episodes of care over many years before reaching a sustained state of remission. While most treatment research has focused on single episodes of care, the average person entering publicly-funded treatment has been in treatment before and is likely to return to treatment again. More work is needed to understand the decades-long course of addiction, treatment and recovery. The proposed study is designed to test specific hypotheses from a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model used for people with other chronic conditions in order to develop testable strategies for more effectively managing recovery over time. The study will expand from 5 to 10 years a longitudinal study of 1326 participants sequentially admitted to a treatment. The sample was stratified by level of care (outpatient, intensive outpatient, methadone maintenance, halfway houses, short-term residential, long-term residential) to ensure a range of substance use disorders and stage of addiction/treatment career. The participants are 59% female and 87% African American. Using a comprehensive assessment package, we conducted follow-up interviews at 6 months, 18 months, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (half) years achieving follow-up rates of 93% or more per wave. The specific aims are to: 1) examine the association between multiple treatment episodes, relapse, and recovery patterns over the course of 10 years; 2) evaluate individual differences that may moderate one's ability to initiate and sustain recovery, such as, psychiatric co-morbidity, personality, and gender; 3) explore the extent to which treatment or other forces change mediators of recovery, such as changes in motivation, coping strategies, spirituality, social networks, and physical recovery environment; and 4) evaluate the extent to which sustained recovery and attenuated substance use reduce the long-term consequences associated with substance use, including illegal activity, physical or mental illness, expensive service utilization, and death.