Correlation between ancillary community services with adolescent substance use disorders treatment outcome

This study explores whether participation in ancillary out-of-program services predicts outcomes of adolescents treated for substance use disorders.

Eighty-eight consenting adolescents, 13-18 years of age recruited at an outpatient program filled the Teen Treatment Services Review (T-TSR) during eight weekly sessions, and at 3-and 9-Month post-treatment. Outcome variables included urinalysis and three subscales of the Teen-Addiction Severity Index (T-ASI) during Treatment (DT) and at follow-ups. The predictor variable was the number of reported Out-of-Program service contact Days (OD).

While DT OD did not correlate with DT urinalysis, high DT OD days showed a trend toward predicting negative 3-month (3-M) urinalysis. By contrast, high 3-M OD days-predicted positive 3-M urinalyses as well as high use on all three T-ASI subscales. Out-of-Program services between 3-and 9-M post-treatment were not correlated with 9-M objective or subjective outcomes.

The more therapeutic services received during treatment, the better the short-term outcome. The more therapeutic services received post-treatment, however, the poorer the shortterm outcome. Use of outside services presented a response rather than a cause of substance use.