The Case for Drug Abuse Treatment Effectiveness, Based on the DARP Research Program *

Abstract

Summary: The Drug Abuse Reporting Programme (DARP) is a large‐scale evaluation project focused on the effectiveness of drug abuse treatment, based on almost 44,000 clients admitted to 52 treatment centres located throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico between June 1969 and March 1973. The present paper summarizes research on post‐DARP follow‐up data (representing up to six years after DARP) for a sample of 3,131 persons admitted to treatment during 1969 to 1972. Treatments included methadone maintenance (MM), therapeutic community (TC), out‐patient drug‐free (DF), and out‐patient detoxification programmes (DT); a comparison group of intake only (10) clients with no DARP treatment was also followed up. The data showed in general that three treatments, MM, TC and DF, led to favourable results — MM and TC for heroin and other opioid addicts, and DF for non‐addicts (users of opioids less‐than‐daily, usually in conjunction with other non‐opioid drugs and users of non‐opioids only)