Assessment of an abstinence-oriented, outpatient drug addiction service in Greece

The 'Athena' service is an abstinence-oriented, outpatient substance addiction unit in Greece. To appraise the operation of the service, 459 clients who contacted the unit during a 3-yr. period were assessed in terms of treatment retention and situation upon discharge from the program; 182 of them had four or more appointments with the service and were thoroughly assessed using a battery of measures pertaining to their situation at discharge and their patterns of abuse and related problems. Most help-seekers were single, unemployed, young men who regularly used heroin (89%) intravenously (35%). From those who got involved in the therapeutic process (40%), 72% had positively modified their drug abuse by the time of discharge from the program (mean duration of treatment: approx. three months); the largest improvement (42%) was recorded in their psychological condition. Treatment retention was significantly higher for cannabis abusers than heroin addicts; longer treatment duration was significantly associated with a positive situation at discharge, while higher education was associated with a less favorable outcome regarding the abuse of the principal substance. These findings suggest that such outpatient programs may help a significant number of individuals who get involved in the therapeutic process and should be considered effective for treatment of substance abuse among the diversity of treatment modalities.