Treatment Terms

Re-ha-bil-i-tate:

Restore to effectiveness or normal life by training.

Ad-dic-tion:

Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance.

Drug:

A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.

News Releases


Drug Rehabs

08/06/2008

What are Good Success Rates for Drug Rehabs?

There are a lot of drug rehab programs out there claiming they have a good success rate for treating addiction. Some people will believe anything they read while others are infinitely skeptical of anything boasting results. Somewhere in between there is a good sense of judgement on finding a successful drug rehab for someone.

Believe it or not there have not been any large studies done to determine what rehab success rates should be. There are plenty of drug rehab centers who do their own calculating, but how the numbers are punched in can sometimes determine how the results appear. One of the only large national studies done is more than a decade old and didn't define what success really is, so even those statistics are blurred. For our purposes, we define success as no longer using drugs, period.

How is a Rehab Success Rate Determined?

Rehab centers that claim all kinds of success rates can be confusing. The key to finding out which ones make sense is to see what they consider to be a success. In other words, do they feel that someone simply completing their program is a success? Do they feel someone going to meetings (whether they're clean or not) is a success? Or worse, do they actually put them on some type of addictive replacement drug and still think that is a success?

Believe it or not, one very large treatment outcome survey reported the percentage of success rate based on the reduction of how much drug use occurred after completing the program. In other words, if people only used drugs one day out of ten instead of every day, they called that a 90% success rate, despite the person still abusing the original drug. Other success rates might be determined by whether or not the person is still using the original drug, such as with methadone maintenance. If they are not on heroin any more but are drinking and taking methadone then they still consider that a success as well.

The bottom line is to not get confused or caught up in what is printed until you get the truth. We can help you find out how programs determine their reported success rate and whether or not it is worth your time and money. Not all long term drug rehab programs are going to produce the same result.

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