Research found that therapeutic communities and other types of residential programs are effective in reducing drug use, unemployment, and criminal behavior and that length of time spent in treatment is an important predictor of client outcomes from programs. Studies vary considerably, however, in terms of the amount of time they found clients need to stay in treatment to produce those outcomes. Data collected for the Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (TOPS) were analyzed to explore the relationship between time spent in treatment and client outcomes from therapeutic communities and other types of residential drug treatment programs. The analysis took into account client characteristics and whether clients received drug treatment during the follow-up year. The results indicate there is a stronger relationship between time spent in treatment and client outcomes from therapeutic communities than was suggested in earlier analysis of TOPS data.
An earlier draft of this article was submitted to the National Institute on Drug Abuse for a forthcoming research monograph on therapeutic communities. The research was supported in part by NIDA Contract 271-91-4306 and NIDA Grant 1-RO1 DA4847-01A1.