Integrating research and practice in the CSAT Methamphetamine Treatment Project

This study investigates the dynamics of integrating research and practice in community-based treatment organizations that participated in the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment Methamphetamine Treatment Project (MTP). Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted in eight treatment organizations throughout the western United States and involved 85 participants working either directly under the MTP cooperative agreement (n = 77) or for the agency in which the MTP was taking place (n = 8). The interview explored how participants viewed the integration of substance abuse treatment and research and how they characterized successful and ideal drug treatment. Participants were concerned that clients' needs were not met within the parameters of a research study. They also described new relationships (e.g., between Research Assistants and clients) that had potentially important implications for the integrity of research in clinical settings. Projects attempting to integrate research and practice should attend to clinicians' orientations toward clients and to the effects of research on treatment program dynamics.