Recovery Housing and Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome

Summary

Reinforcement-Based Therapy (RBT) is an intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment that includes relapse prevention skills training, goal setting, help with finding employment and abstinence-contingent rent payment for recovery housing in the community. It is meant to provide motivation for continued abstinence while enhancing social stability. In this study, treatment was offered to inner city opiate and cocaine users immediately following a brief medically-supported residential detoxification. Previous research had shown that RBT produces 3- month outcomes superior to those for patients who are referred to outpatient treatment in the community. The present study compared outcomes for patients (N = 243) randomly assigned to receive abstinence-contingent recovery housing with (full RBT) or without additional intensive counseling or to receive usual care referral to outpatient treatment following detoxification. Outcomes were similar at 3- and 6-month follow-ups for those who received recovery housing with (full RBT) and without additional counseling and both these treatments were superior to usual care referral. Study findings support the efficacy of post-detoxification recovery housing with or without counseling for opiate and cocaine users.

Conditions

• Mental and Behavioral Disorders Due to Use of Cocaine: Harmful Use
• Opiate Addiction

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Recovery Housing plus Counseling

Participants receive 3 months of abstinence-contingent program-supported rent payment in community recovery housing. They also receive intensive outpatient counseling (both individual and group) focused on relapse prevention skills training, goal setting, employment seeking and recreational activities.

BEHAVIORAL

Usual Care Referral

Participants are referred to an outpatient program of their choosing with an appointment made for them.

BEHAVIORAL

Recovery Housing Only

Participant may receive up to 3 months of abstinence-contingent rent payment in community recovery housing but is not invited to participate in intensive counseling.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Johns Hopkins University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Maxine Stitzer, Ph.D. · Johns Hopkins University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2001-04-30

Primary Completion

2008-06-30

Completion

2008-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations