Outcome research on treatment and on the drug abuser: an exploration

The study of treatment outcome has its own history, and the experience of other service fields in this area may be of considerable interest to researchers concerned with the effectiveness of treatment for drug abusers. Methodological issues that emerged from psychotherapy's efforts at self-evaluation are reviewed and contrasted with work done on treatment outcome in drug programs. An overview is presented of current research on the improvement of drug abusers and on treatment effectiveness.