State-level treatment outcome studies using administrative databases

State substance dependence administrative databases contain both administrative and clinical information on large numbers of patients collected over extended time periods. Access to other state databases--employment, criminal behavior, and Medicaid--has also been achieved in some instances. Such data could prove an important source for the evaluation of long-term treatment outcomes and their determinants. This selected review describes and evaluates the treatment outcome and cost-related findings of the most advanced studies using these databases. A number of these studies have shown that completion of substance dependence treatment is associated with reduced societal costs. Some of these studies have focused on significant subpopulations of patients, including pregnant women and adolescents. A shortcoming of the findings of most of these studies concerns their use of noncompleter or non-randomly collected comparison groups. The utility of these databases can be enhanced by coupling them with clinical research treatment outcome evaluation approaches.