The addiction treatment industry is decades behind other areas of healthcare in measuring its effectiveness. When I first created the Conquer Addiction rehab directory in 2015, I could find only five centers which were following up with their patients after treatment in any kind of scientific fashion and willing to publicly share their results. Let me say that again – out of the thousands of centers providing addiction treatment, only five were investing in determining whether their treatment worked!
Why Do So Few Rehabs Measure Their Success Rates?
There are several reasons. First, no one is requiring it. Neither the health insurance payers nor the accrediting bodies impose any outcomes requirements. While consumers care deeply about finding effective treatment, they haven’t banded together to insist that outcomes be measured.
Secondly, measuring post-treatment outcomes is hard. Former rehab patients are a notoriously difficult group to keep track of. Not only is relapse common, but former users are often told to change their phone number after treatment so their dealers can’t contact them.
Perhaps a third reason is that some rehabs don’t really want to know how few of their patients succeed in recovering after treatment? I don't want to think so, but it's possible.
What we do know is that because prospective patients and their families kept asking “what is your success rate?”, some rehab salespeople started telling them what they wanted to hear. When I was searching for treatment for my daughter, I was often quoted success rates of 75% or higher. One rehab owner had the audacity to tell me that 98% of his patients were in recovery one year after treatment. How dare he!
What It Means When a Rehab Claims a Success Rate of 75% or Higher
As much as we want to believe that most patients recover after one episode of treatment, it’s simply not true. Addiction is a chronic disease and relapse is heartbreakingly common.
If we give the rehabs quoting ridiculously-high success rates the benefit of the doubt and assume they aren’t simply making up the numbers, they must be doing sloppy research. Most likely the center is simply sending out one or two texts to former patients asking them if they are using again.
Human nature being what it is, people who are proud of how they are doing are far more likely to respond. For example, in Vista’s research among 27,761 patients one year after they left treatment, 88% of the respondents reported being abstinent. Yet the true success rate for an average center in Vista’s study is only 37% because so many former patients couldn’t be contacted at all.
Any time you hear success rates of 75%, 80% or higher being quoted, you can be confident the rehab is only reaching a small percentage (usually well less than 20%) of their population and pretending these few are representative of all of their patients.
How Conquer Addiction’s Success Rates Are Determined
Conquer Addiction forces scientific rigor by requiring that success rates be based on the total population of former patients the research attempted to contact. All patients who don’t respond are assumed to be using again.
In order for a rehab to have a 5-star rating on Conquer Addiction, an independent research company has to confirm that at least 40% of the center’s patients completed a research survey one year after they left treatment and reported not having used alcohol or non-prescribed drugs for at least the last 30 days. Very large rehabs are allowed to randomly select 275 patients to conduct the research among each year.
Vista Research Group, the outcomes research company I founded in 2015, is unique in its ability to regularly reach 50% or more of patients one year after treatment. Vista achieves this high response rate by doing the following:
- Reaching out to patients 10 to 15 times by text, email and phone at each contact time
- Instantly sending patients gift cards when they complete an outcomes survey, and
- Contacting family members the patient has given Vista permission to reach out to for updated contact information if we’re unable to reach the patient
Conquer Addiction’s independent panel of judges has set additional rules to ensure the accuracy of the research results. Patients must be promised that their answers will be kept confidential, a script must be followed, and the results must be collected within a month of the patient’s one year anniversary. In order to maintain a star rating on Conquer Addiction, updated results must be submitted to the judges at least once each year.
Finding Effective Treatment For Someone You Love
There’s no guarantee that your loved one will be able to stop using for good if they go to treatment. However, if you choose a treatment center with 3, 4 or 5 stars on Conquer Addiction’s directory, you can be confident you’re choosing a rehab that truly cares about their patients’ recovery. In an industry where less than 1% of centers invest in accurately following up with their patients after treatment, these addiction treatment programs have hired an independent outcomes research firm to make sure a large percentage of their patients are achieving their drug and alcohol usage goals after treatment.
Eight of Conquer Addiction’s five-star treatment centers are so confident in the effectiveness of their treatment that they make families an unprecedented offer. If a patient relapses within 90 days of completing the Five Star Addiction Treatment Market program outlined on their Conquer Addiction page, these rehabs will provide at least 21 days of additional treatment for free at the clinically-appropriate level of care! To see these centers putting patient recovery first, select the “Limit Search to 5-Star Market Rehabs” button when you’re searching Conquer Addiction:
I remember how upsetting it was to have to choose what treatment center to send my daughter to based on how nice a salesperson was on the phone, not on how many of their patients actually recovered. Conquer Addiction's verified outcomes give you proof that a center's treatment works. I hope you find the directory helpful in your search for the best rehab for your loved one.