Substance Abuse Treatment Compliance of Drug Offenders in Philadelphia

Though there are numerous data regarding the recidivism of court-stipulated drug offenders in substance abuse treatment, information has not been obtained regarding compliance rates of court-stipulated drug offenders as compared to non-court-stipulated clients in Philadelphia. To better evaluate Philadelphia's existing programs for drug offender treatment, a historical cohort study was carried out to determine treatment compliance of this population. Mental health diagnosis (determined by Axis 1 diagnoses) and mental health function (determined by Global Assessment of Functioning scores) were evaluated as modifying variables to treatment compliance. Discharge data was used from roughly 120 clients, 60 court-stipulated drug offenders and 60 non-court-stipulated clients. Court-stipulated drug offenders hailed from either the City of Philadelphia's Forensic Intensive Recovery Program or the Philadelphia Treatment Court system. All data were collected from Northeast Treatment Centers, a community-based mental health/substance abuse treatment facility in Philadelphia. Data collection is currently ongoing but preliminary results should be available by early Fall 2007.