Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology during treatment in a drug and alcohol therapeutic community.

A repeated measures design was employed that looked at PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress at a pre- and post-timepoint. A second sample was then evaluated at time of program completion to seven months post-treatment.

PTSD symptomatology significantly decreased in individuals who had undertaken treatment, and continued to decline post-treatment. This finding was irrespective of any PTSD-specific treatment.

PTSD specific treatment is not necessary to lower the symptomatology. Furthermore, this provides evidence that PTSD and substance use disorders are so highly intertwined that the comorbidity can almost be considered a single, diagnosis.

This is a partial replication of previous research which had not previously been replicated. This research also adds to the limited research which looks at PTSD from the perspective of drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize research conducted in long-term residential rehabilitation centers, including therapeutic communities (TCs), in order to further clarify the effectiveness of this treatment approach and to evaluate the quality of TC research conducted in the period 2000-2013.

The composite search engine UQ database Summon were used to find articles with “Therapeutic Community” as title words, and the search was limited to adult participants, peer-reviewed articles, published between January 2000 and June 2013 in the English language. The review was conducted using Cochrane Collaboration methods and reported under the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses guidelines.

In total, 25 studies met inclusion criteria for the review and represented data from n=5,923 participants in the USA, Australia, Spain, England, and Belgium. Evidence supports the TC approach for a diverse range of individuals who misuse a range of substances. Several studies reported a relationship between retention and outcomes however dropout from treatment is a widespread issue. A paucity of research using multiple time points precludes any firm conclusions regarding the optimal length of treatment in a TC. There is a lack of research on the interplay between individual and community-level factors on client well-being, retention, and longer term outcomes.

This review highlights the need for TC research that includes multiple time points and follow-up assessments, and measures of change in theoretically meaningful constructs alongside standard measures of demographics, substance use, and psychiatric symptoms.

The reporting format of TC research should be better standardized in order to create a better basis for research comparison. More standardized reporting would also allow for effect size analysis, and create a more efficacious evidence base.

This updates the systematic review body of research.