Development of Substance Abuse Relapse Reduction System

Substance abuse treatment research has repeatedly documented high relapse rates following treatmentrelapses represent enormous costs in both economic and human terms. If the instrumentation and proceit is likely that spousal involvement and intensive monitoring of the recovery process could substanrates. Preliminary work by members of the project team has pointed to the need for (1) guidelines fospouse/support person; (2) a reliable and valid measure of relapse risk which can be administered viinterview; and (3) procedures for assisting (e.g., via "booster" sessions) those at high risk to avothese guidelines, measures and procedures are the key aims of the research. The relapse risk measurethrough analysis of post treatment data for approximately 100 patients from intensive outpatient andprograms This represents the most important innovation, since there is currently no such measure witreliability and validity. While some programs have experimented with methods for achieving (1) and (been no objective basis for deciding which approach is more effective either generally or as an adjuup. This proposal includes an innovative approach to designing optimal procedures for (1) and (3), tidentification of highly effective programs and the conducting of focus groups with their directors.