Comparison of substance abuse treatment outcomes for inpatients and outpatients

This study was conducted to determine whether inpatient substance abuse treatment was associated with higher posttreatment abstinence rates than outpatient treatment. The follow-up sample of 2,476 adults represented 183 Minnesota treatment programs. Composite measures were constructed based on psychometric analyses of a modified version of the Addiction Severity Index and additional variables. A series of analyses was conducted, including hierarchical logistic regression and a contingency table analysis addressing multiple problem severity. For the total sample, setting was not significantly associated with abstinence once other outcome predictors and differences between inpatients and outpatients were controlled for. However, when the logistic regression analysis was extended to include all possible two-way interactions of setting with clinically related severity variables, recent suicidal behavior was found to be a moderator of the association between setting and outcome. Inpatient treatment significantly predicted a higher posttreatment abstinence rate than outpatient treatment for the small subset of patients (16% of the sample) who reported recent suicidal ideation or attempt.