Evaluation of the effectiveness of drug‐abuse treatment with implementation of standard instruments: The experience in Ukraine

Abstract

The article describes the experience in Ukraine with implementing standard instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of drug‐abuse treatment. With the aim of moving away from a sole focus on length of abstinence and toward multiple dimensions for assessing success in treatment, three standard instruments—the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), the Symptom Check List (SCL‐90) and the Risk Assessment Battery (RAB)—were translated, adapted and applied. Clients had to be paid if the full 2 h of questioning was to be completed. It turned out that full implementation is only possible in present‐day Ukraine in special research studies. Instead, use is recommended either of a shorter set of questions used in the ASI composite scores, or of the clinician's own questions to assess the dimensions covered in the ASI.

• Drug abuse
• effectiveness evaluation
• diagnostic instruments