Drug Use and Employment Patterns Before and During Treatment

Abstract

This paper was initiated to study the effect of outcome measures as they relate to indication of treatment success. Results have shown that after the third month in treatment, drug use decreases very little. Time in treatment is significantly related to urin-analysis results during the first 3 months; that is, those clients who were to remain in treatment for longer periods were those whose average opiate use during the first 3 months were lowest. We also found that no relationship exists between pretreatment opiate use and opiate use during any evaluation time period. Analysis of employment change rate for a 1-year's period indicate that those employed at intake remain employed and those unemployed remain so. Change in opiate use during any evaluation period had no influence whatsoever on employment.