Longer treatments 'improve success rates for addicts'

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by Change | 8 Jan 2009

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The more time a patient spends in an addiction recovery program the better they will often respond to the treatment, a source claims.

substance addiction centers in the US are increasingly offering longer periods of treatment, a source reveals.

Research has found the longer an attendee is involved with a program the lower their chances of addiction relapse, the LA Times reports.

Experts in the field claim basing the length of treatment on the individual needs of the person involved can be more effective.

David Sack, MD, addiction psychiatrist and chief executive of Promises, tells the news provider that US clinics used to follow the cookie-cutter model, in which a standard program was applied indiscriminately.

"There was a belief that 30 days was the right number … but there was absolutely no data to say 30 days was the right number," he asserts.

Lisa Onken, the chief of the National Institute of Drug Abuse's behavioural and integrative treatment branch, claims the more time a patient spends in a program the better they usually respond.

In other news, among the methods of overcoming dependency identified in a report by the Harvard Medical School is attending a substance addiction treatment center.

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