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 		APHA 2006 APHA
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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Replicable model for managing addiction as chronic condition Recovery Management Check-ups (RMC)

Christy K. Scott, PhD and Michael L. Dennis, PhD. Lighthouse Institute, Chestnut Health Systems, Inc., 712 N. Wells, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60610, 312-664-4321, cscott@chestnut.org

A growing body of empirical evidence demonstrates that severe substance use disorders (SUDS) often constitute a chronic condition marked by cycles of recovery, relapse, and repeated treatments often spanning decades before reaching stable recovery, permanent disability or death. Unlike conditions that are time-limited and treatable in single episodes of acute care, chronic conditions ebb and flow over long periods of time, and their course is not fundamentally altered by acute episodes of stabilization. The goals of this paper are to review the challenges of treating SUDS within a chronic care model, to explore the feasibility of managing chronic SUDS by providing ongoing monitoring, early identification of symptoms, and intervention through quarterly recovery management checkups (RMC), and to determine the effectiveness of checkups on patient outcomes. Results from two experiments demonstrated that participants assigned to the RMC condition received more treatment, reported more days of abstinence and experienced more consecutive quarters in which they did not need treatment than participants in the control group who were responsible for identifying their symptoms and successfully accessing treatment. In the first experiment, seven checkups were needed to achieve these results, whereas only three checkups were necessary in the second experiment to attain them. The data from the second experiment provided evidence that the RMC model was improved and can be replicated.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session