I found this in “Dispelling The Myths About Addiction, Strategies To Increase Understanding And Strengthen Research,” Institute Of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, 1997, pages 73-74.
“One of the most enduring myths about addiction is that treatment for these disorders is ineffective.'
"O’Brien and McLellan (1996) reviewed and compared treatment literature for addictive disorders and three common health problems – hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. Treatment effectiveness for addiction was defined as a 50% decrease in drug taking after 6 months. The literature reviewed showed treatment for alcoholism to be successful for 40% to 70% of patients; success rates for cocaine addiction were 50% to 60%, opioids 50% to 80%, and nicotine 20% to 40%. Interestingly, review of studies relevant to diabetes, hypertension and asthma revealed that high proportions of these patients did not follow their physician’s advice and did not adhere to diet and other behavioral components of their treatment. For example, among patients with insulin-dependent diabetes, less than 50% adhered to their medication regimen and less than 30% conformed to their diet and other self-care requirements. Less than 30% of patents! with asthma and hypertension were found to take their medication as instructed. Noncompliance and other factors, according to the studies reviewed, resulted in 50% to 60% of hypertension and 60 to 80% of asthmas patients needing to be retreated within a year.
The comparability of these data argue that addiction is similar to these three common medical illnesses in that they all can be treated successfully in many patients, but none can be cured and all 4 often require retreatment.
Yet, there are important differences between addiction and these other illnesses in the perception of the public, insurance companies and physicians. Few would argue that retreatment for diabetes, hypertension, or asthma indicates treatment failure, or that treatment should be withheld from or denied to these patients when they relapse and their symptoms reoccur. Yet such an argument is commonly made about addiction.”
I find this is interesting considering the number of people who when they hear about my work for a drub rehab center, and ask me questions that start out with in a doubting tone, “And what is your success rate?” How many people ask the same question to the physician or othe rhealth care provider, in the first line of a conversation…….hmmmm. What do you think?
