Drug and Alcohol Rehab Success Rates
Many drug and alcohol treatment facilities have a tendency to boast that they have highest success rates in treating their patients. However, this claim is often an unqualified one in the sense that the comparisons used to reach the conclusion of the “highest rates” don’t often make clear precisely what is being compared.
It’s important to note that there is no uniform standard for rehabilitation centers to measure success. Some treatment centers quote success rates simply for completion of treatment, while others follow up with patients a few months or one year later to ask how they are doing.
Relapses aren’t figured in success rates of recovery from addiction. For instance, if a person relapses after finishing a particular rehab program, as long as they are clean at the time of the survey they are counted as a success. In addition, addicts that are clean at the time of the survey, regardless of whether they are currently in another treatment program are counted as part of the success rates for the rehab centers treatment program. On the whole, 70 percent of individuals who entered a drug treatment facility and complete the drug treatment program started using again within SAMHSA’s five year time frame.
[1] Rebecca McKetin, et. al. Evaluating the impact of community-based treatment options on methamphetamine use: findings from the Methamphetamine Treatment Evaluation Study (MATES). Addiction, November 2012, Vol. 107, Issue 11, pp. 1998–2008.
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