Intermediate Levels of Care and the 3 Mechanisms of Therapeutic Action

This column describes 3 mechanisms of therapeutic action in the treatment of mental and substance use disorders. These mechanisms include biomedical interventions, dyadic interventions, and interventions involving transdyadic social learning. Combining mechanisms of action offers the potential to augment treatment response. Intermediate levels of care (Intensive Outpatient Programs, Partial Hospital Programs, and Residential Treatment Centers) are generally designed to provide treatment combining all 3 mechanisms of therapeutic action in the service of helping patients better use outpatient treatment to pursue recovery.