A Meta-analysis of the Alcohol Treatment Outcome Literature: 1993 to 2000

Alcohol misuse is a very common problem with high financial and personal costs. Treatment requires allocation of limited resources for optimal impact. Responsible decision making in this area should be based upon reasoned weighing of research evidence. Miller and colleagues completed a meta-analytic review of all controlled studies published before 1992 to help clinicians do just that. The coding system they employed examined methodological quality, as well as outcome, to obtain a rank­ordering of treatments that seem to have the most quality research support. The current study attempts to extend this work utilizing the same coding on studies published since 1992, and combine both databases of articles. Revised rank orderings of treatments and conclusions regarding variables related to outcomes are reported. Implications are discussed, along with limitations of this review. An upward trend in methodological quality over time was also discovered

Predictors of Graduation and Rearrest in a Contemporary Juvenile Drug Court Program

Research on the efficacy of drug courts for substance-abusing criminal adult offenders has generally found reduced recidivism rates, and both actual and potential cost savings to the public. However , outcome research on juvenile drug courts has been limited. Furthermore , little research has examined variables that may be predictive of outcome in this population. This study reports graduation and rearrest rates for a sample of juvenile drug court participants in Salt Lake City, Utah. Also, this research assessed whether demographics, prior arrest history, attendance at drug education classes, serving detention time, or a preprogram measure of degree of substance abuse (SAS SI-A) help predict several important outcomes (i.e., graduation from the drug court program and number of rearrests per year after leaving drug court). The graduation rate in this sample was fairly high (84.2%). However, the rearrest rate was also relatively high, with slightly over 50% with an arrest for any offense, and 38. 7% with a drug-elated arrest during follow-up (average follow-up time 4.3 years). Serving detention and not attending prevention class predicted lower rates of program graduation, while younger age, male gender, not graduating drug court, non-Caucasian status, and past adjudication predicted higher rates of recidivism (rearrest)