Comparing three stages of addiction recovery: long-term recovery and its relation to housing problems, crime, occupation situation, and substance use

Abstract

Many studies on addiction recovery focus on recovery initiation and short-term outcomes for alcohol addictions. In this study, we examine associations between three recovery stages and recovery markers for persons in drug addiction recovery. Data were collected for a multi-country study (REC-PATH) among 722 individuals living in the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium, who consider themselves in addiction recovery for a period of three months or more. We focus on typical life domains that characterize recovery: housing, crime, work or education, and substance use. The relation with time in recovery was examined for three recovery stages: early (<1 year), sustained (1–5 years), and stable (>5 years). Using the Life in Recovery survey, cross-sectional analyses reveal that participants in later recovery stages have lower odds of having housing problems, being involved in crime, and using illicit hard drugs and higher odds of having work or education, when compared to participants in the early recovery stage. This study provides further empirical support for defining drug addiction recovery as a gradual, long-term process that is associated with various life domains beyond abstinence. The findings suggest that drug policy, treatment and research need to be oriented towards long-term objectives and recovery goals that cover multiple life domains in order to support stable recovery.

Keywords:

• Substance-related disorders
• substance use
• treatment
• recovery
• housing
• crime
• work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, TM, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

.REC-PATH is a collaborative project supported by the European Research Area Network on Illicit Drugs (ERANID).This work is funded in the UK by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programmeand Scottish Government, in Belgium by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and Research Foundation- Flanders (FWO), and in the Netherlands by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research & Development(ZonMw). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the nationalfunding agencies or ERANID.