Recovery Housing and Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome

Reinforcement-Based Therapy (RBT) is an intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment that includes relapse prevention skills training, goal setting, help with finding employment and abstinence-contingent rent payment for recovery housing in the community. It is meant to provide motivation for continued abstinence while enhancing social stability. In this study, treatment was offered to inner city opiate and cocaine users immediately following a brief medically-supported residential detoxification. Previous research had shown that RBT produces 3- month outcomes superior to those for patients who are referred to outpatient treatment in the community. The present study compared outcomes for patients (N = 243) randomly assigned to receive abstinence-contingent recovery housing with (full RBT) or without additional intensive counseling or to receive usual care referral to outpatient treatment following detoxification. Outcomes were similar at 3- and 6-month follow-ups for those who received recovery housing with (full RBT) and without additional counseling and both these treatments were superior to usual care referral. Study findings support the efficacy of post-detoxification recovery housing with or without counseling for opiate and cocaine users.