Evaluation of a substance use treatment program for forensic psychiatric inpatients

ABSTRACT

There have been few evaluations of substance use interventions for forensic psychiatric patients. In this study, we evaluated a manualized substance use treatment for forensic inpatients by comparing 35 treatment completers (who attended 75% or more of their sessions) and 30 non-completers (less than 75%) on self-report and urinalysis measures. The treatment completer group showed significant increases in substance-related knowledge and self-reported relapse prevention skills, but there was no significant difference between completers and non-completers in time to first substance use (if any) or in having a positive urine screen result 12 or 24 months after participation in the program. The results indicated improvement in knowledge and self-reported skills, but this did not translate to decreased substance use as measured by urinalysis. Implications for substance use treatment are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic patients
• substance use
• program evaluation
• urinalysis

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

Both Dr. Ahmed and Mrs. Adamson are authors of this unpublished treatment manual. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.