Evaluating the Risk of Relapse for Adolescents Treated for Substance Abuse

Abstract

Objective 

The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between sociodemographic, psychologic and treatment variables and successful outcomes of adolescents treated for psychoactive substance use disorder.

Methods 

This retrospective study uses logistic regression to analyze the probability of relapse after treatment. The subjects are 509 adolescents discharged from American Society for Addiction Medicine defined level 1 primary inpatient substance abuse treatment from 2001 to 2007. The average length of stay is 1.6 months. Treatment consisted of a standard set of manualized skill-based interventions approved by American Society for Addiction Medicine. Services were provided consistently between patients and across time.

Results 

The principle findings are that associating with friends who use drugs/alcohol is related to higher probabilities of relapse with [odds ratio (OR): 4.09 through 9.69] depending on the definition of relapse. Using a sensitive measure of relapse, those with higher number of prior treatment episodes were less likely to relapse (OR=0.936), but polysubstance addiction (OR=4.27) was associated with relapse. Under more specific definition of relapse boys (OR=7.29), and polydrug addicts (OR=3.28) relapsed at higher rates; those who made new, nonusing friends, were less likely to relapse (OR=0.453).