[Approaches to systematic analysis of addiction management]

The aim to calculate the functions of health care also considers the care system for addicts. The scientific basis of these intentions are organizational analyses, health economy and systems analysis. Those approaches however do not fit well into quality assessments of care systems for people with psychic problems. Especially the functions and the structure of the health care system for addicts are of considerable heterogeneity and complexity. These features represent a great methodological challenge for systems analysis. Already the causal analysis of essential parameters like the number of drug deaths depends on so many variables, so that it cannot be ascertained that any particular intervention has a specific definite effect on drug mortality. Besides, the waiting period for withdrawal facilities is determined by many factors. Hence, unique measures of addiction policies probably do not have essential effects. On the contrary, waiting periods of few days lead to a higher occurrence of drop-outs at detoxification programmes. For the future, in order to obtain quantitative functional analysis of the addiction care system research projects have to be designed based on a unification of the documentary systems which help to better understand the flow of patients.