Publication: Substance Abuse Treatment: what do we know? An Economist's perspective
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2005
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Springer
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Abstract
The literature on treating substance abuse
has dealt basically with four important questions:
(a) Is treatment effective? (b) Are all
programs equally effective? (c) Why do programs differ in their effectiveness? (d) Which treatments are more cost-effective? This paper reviews the substance abuse treatment literature around these four questions and discusses methodological issues that hinder the interpretation and generalization of results to date. The answer to the first question
is a sounding “yes,” treatment is effective
but not all programs are equally effective.
Researchers have moved beyond the
“black box” literature that concentrated on
patient and program characteristics as explanations for differences in effectiveness and search for the “active” ingredients of treatment.
These include, for example, the treatment
philosophy of the program’s director
and staff attitudes towards patients. Cost-effectiveness studies are less common, and their conclusions are mixed. In general, it is probably safe to say that for the majority of patients, outpatient or shorter programs are more cost-effective.
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Alcohol misuse, Survey, Treatment evaluation, Effectiveness
Bibliographic citation
European Journal of Health Economics. (Marzo 2005), vol. 6, nº 1, p. 53-64