Examination of Referral Source and Retention Among Women in Residential Substance Use Disorder Treatment: A Prospective Follow-Up Study

Abstract

Background: Court-mandated substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, as compared to nonmandated treatment, has been associated with increased retention and completion. However, whether child protective services (CPS)-mandated women’s residential SUD treatment leads to improved treatment retention in comparison to criminal justice (CJ)-mandated and nonmandated treatment remains unclear. Purpose: This study compared the number of days retained in residential SUD treatment among three referral sources (CPS, CJ, and nonmandated), while also examining whether having a co-occurring mental health disorder or certain mental health characteristics (increased stress, depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptomology) contributed to decreased retention. This study tested the hypothesis that women mandated by the CPS and CJ systems would have improved residential SUD treatment retention compared with nonmandated women. Methods: Multivariate regression analyses were conducted on data for a diverse sample of 245 women (Hispanic: N = 141, Black: N = 50, White: N = 50) mandated or nonmandated (CJ: N = 114, CPS: N = 82, nonmandated: N = 49) into residential SUD treatment to determine each group’s treatment retention outcomes. Results: Women mandated to SUD residential treatment regardless of source (CPS or CJ) remained in treatment significantly longer (CPS: M = 116.59 days, SD = 65.59, p = .023; CJ: M = 133.86 days, SD = 79.43, p = .028), compared to women not mandated (M = 96.11 days, SD = 72.09), representing a 34.4% and 31.6% increase, respectively. Findings further revealed a corresponding 2.3% decrease in retention (p = .024) for each one-unit increase in a patient’s stress score, whereas those with a co-occurring mental health diagnosis had a 43.6% decrease in SUD treatment retention (p < .001). Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of future research that examines the impact of referral source, co-occurring mental disorders, and stress on women’s residential SUD treatment retention.Further research is needed examining the variability in external motivation among referral sources compounded by dynamic intersections of risk associated with having a co-occurring disorder and stress on treatment retention.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02977988 (first posted November 30, 2016; last update posted October 7, 2019); U.S. NIH Grant/Contract: 5R01DA038648