Opening Move in Substance Abuse Therapy: Appropriateness of Treatment Assignment

This study examines the relationships between pretreatment severity of six problem areas commonly affected by addiction and type of discharge from inpatient substance abuse treatment. Subjects were 531 male veterans from five different inpatient substance abuse programs at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Coatesville, Pennsylvania. A comparison of patients in the five programs showed different patterns of problem severity, and different variables emerged as correlates or discriminators of discharge status. Results of multiple discriminant analyses were useful in predicting those patients who received an unfavorable discharge from treatment, although the analyses were not as successful in identifying those patients who received favorable discharges. Based on this data, some approaches to improving the match between patients and programs are discussed.