Literature Review of drug treatment programs

Effectiveness of Drug Treatment Programs for Criminal Offenders
Candidate’s Name
Institution’s Name
Introduction
Many researchers have affirmed that treatment intervention is efficient for those abusing drugs, even to individual offenders. Nevertheless, its efficiency relies on the person as well as the program, and if or not the treatment is accessible and suitable for the person’s desires. To change mindsets, principles, as well as conducts which encourage drug abuse, the abuser should participate in therapeutic transformation procedures that comprise medications to assists in stopping relapse. In this literature review, the writer shall discuss various researches which have been done on the effectiveness of drug treatment programs for offenders.
Literature Review
The agreement from past research assessments is that drug abuse treatment programs may be relatively efficient for certain individuals.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CTB)
This program supposes that drug abusers possess maladaptive reasoning patterns which must be altered. It concentrates on reorganizing mindsets, judgment as well as advancing interpersonal abilities (Milkman & Wanberg, 2007). Drug abusers actively engage in actions to grow and strengthen these abilities. Hall et al. (2004) conducted a study on Forever Free program, which is a CBT treatment program for incarcerated women. They discovered that 12 months following the release, 101 women engaged in the program had considerably decreased their drug usage with minimal re-arrests compared to 79 individuals under the comparison cluster.

CBT decrease addicts’ chances for recidivism through lessening drug relapse dangers. Dowden, Antonowicz, and Andrews (2003) explain that these programs include relapse avoidance methods that assist addicted lawbreakers to recognize perilous circumstances that may involve drug usage, help them to grow survival competencies to handle these conditions as well as help them to have the self-efficacy senses. Easton et al. (2007) from their study discovered that CBT programs are efficient in assisting drug abusers to decrease drug usage in the follow-up time of ½ year to 1 year.
Contingency Management (CM)
It is where a reward is issued to support positive conduct. For example, if a drug abuser gets a urine test without traces of alcohol, undertakes medication, or completes other duties, he or she is given a reward. Prendergast et al., (2006) in their study established that drug abusers who got CM got 20-30% healthier drug usage results compared to those given normal treatment without CM. They also discovered that discontinuance of the rewards leads to a decline in abstinence rates. Thus, the positive impacts of CM are likely to reduce during the months subsequent to the program. Budney et al., (2006) discovered that CM is efficient in curing marijuana dependence. When they contrasted the efficiency of CBT with CM, they found that the methods are same in general efficiency but more effective together than either by itself.
Drug Courts
These are programs intended to utilize court’s authority to persuade drug abusers to obtain treatment. Processes differ across the drug courts jurisdictions but the majority merges the treatment with court supervision and drug examination. MacKenzie (2006) asserts following a review of 27 drug court assessments done from 1993 through to 2002 that this program may be efficient in assisting lawbreakers to decrease their criminal interests by decreasing their dependence on the drugs. For example, in a Baltimore’s Drug Court plan those who took part in the program were likely to experience minimal drug usage as well as low engagement in criminal activities when contrasted to those who never attended the program (Gottfredson & Exum, 2002). The researchers established this outcome after randomizing partakers in treatment and control clusters then monitoring them for 36 months.
Pharmacological Treatment
It is a program in which a drug is utilized as an alternative for another very dangerous drug. For instance, topiramate has been assessed as a potential medication of alcohol addiction since it reduces dopamine release inside the midbrain following drinking (Johnson et al., 2007). In contrast to placebo, Johnson et al. (2007) established that drug abusers using topiramate experienced smaller amounts of drinking for each day, minimal heavy intake days, as well as more abstinence days. Further, drug addicts using topiramate demonstrated a rise in safe consumption periods when contrasted with abusers on a placebo. Additionally, Marsch et al. (2005) following a 28-day outpatient medication using buprenorphine discovered that abusers using buprenorphine had considerably superior retention in medication as well as better opiate abstinence rates.
Twelve-Step Programs
These programs suppose that drug addiction is a lifetime illness which may be controlled but not treated. Examples include Cocaine Anonymous (CA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) as well as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). However, Zanis et al. (2003) noted that involvement in a 12-step program did not decrease participants’ recidivism. They found out that offenders who have undergone through the 12-step program were likely as those who did not use the program to be re-arrested for another crime within 2 years of release. Carroll et al. (2006) contrasted the 12-step program with others and established that those who used the 12-step experienced greater rates of marijuana usage while those using other programs experienced lower rates. Researches indicate that this program is not as efficient as other programs in decreasing drug usage among offenders.
Conclusion
In conclusion, from the above researches, it is evident that drug courts, CBT, CM, as well as pharmacological treatment are efficient in assisting offenders to reduce their drug dependence as well as stop criminal behaviors. These effective programs are likely to; concentrate on very dangerous criminals, offer effective enticements to get therapy and incorporate concurrently numerous diverse kinds of interventions. They also give rigorous treatment as well as incorporate aftercare elements.
References
Budney, A. J., Moore, B. A., Rocha, H. L., & Higgins, S. T. (2006). Clinical trial of abstinence-based vouchers and cognitive-behavioral therapy for cannabis dependence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(2), 307-316.
Carroll, K. M., Easton, C. J., Nich, C., Hunkele, K. A., Neavins, T. M., Sinha, R., Rounsaville, B. J. (2006). The use of contingency management and motivational/skills-building therapy to treat young adults with marijuana dependence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 955-966.
Dowden, C., Antonowicz, D., & Andrews, D. A. (2003). The effectiveness of relapse prevention with offenders: A meta-analysis. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 47(5), 516-528.
Easton, C. J., Mandel, D. L., Hunkele, K. A., Nich, C., Rounsaville, B. J., & Carroll, K. M. (2007). A cognitive behavioral therapy for alcohol-dependent domestic violence offenders: An integrated substance abuse-domestic violence treatment approach. American Journal on Addictions, 16, 24-31.
Gottfredson, D. C., & Exum, M. L. Y. (2002). The Baltimore City drug treatment court: One-year results from a randomized study. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39(3), 337-356.
Hall, E. A., Prendergast, M. L., Wellisch, J., Patten, M., & Cao, Y. (2004). Treating drug-abusing women prisoners: An outcomes evaluation of the Forever Free program. The Prison Journal, 84(1), 81-105.
Johnson, B. A., Rosenthal, N., Capece, J. A., Wiegand, F., Mao, L., Beyers, K., Swift, R. M. (2007). Topiramate for treating alcohol dependence: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of American Medical Association, 298(14), 1641-1651.
MacKenzie, D. L. (2006). What works in corrections: reducing the criminal activities of offenders and delinquents. Cambridge University Press.
Marsch, L. A., Bickel, W. K., Badger, G. J., Stothart, M. E., Quesnel, K. J., Stanger, C., & Brooklyn, J. (2005). Comparison of pharmacological treatments for opioid-dependent adolescents. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 1157-1164.
Milkman, H., & Wanberg, K. (2007). Cognitive-behavioral treatment: A review and discussion for correctional professionals (021657). Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections.
Prendergast, M. L., Podus, D., Finney, J., Greenwell, L., & Roll, J. (2006). Contingency management for treatment of substance use disorders: A met-analysis. Addiction, 101, 1546-1560.
Zanis, D. A., Mulvaney, F., Coviello, D., Alterman, A. I., Savtiz, B., & Thompson, W. (2003). The effectiveness of early parole to substance abuse treatment facilities on 24-month criminal recidivism. Journal of Drug Issues, 33(1), 223-236.