E. Gottheil et al., GENERALIZING FROM CONTROLLED TREATMENT OUTCOME STUDIES - SAMPLE DATA FROM A COCAINE TREATMENT PROGRAM, The American journal on addictions, 4(4), 1995, pp. 331-338
The gap between published research findings and clinical practice may
be due in part to clinician concerns about generalizing from research
to real treatment settings. The present study, conducted at a publicly
funded, inner-city cocaine treatment program, compared 102 patients w
ho volunteered for random assignment to treatment with 308 individuals
who refused to volunteer. Volunteers and refusers received the same t
reatment provided by the same staff in the same setting. No difference
s were found in demographics, addiction severity, psychiatric function
ing, or treatment retention. The data suggest that the results of rese
arch findings may therefore be more applicable to clinical settings th
an was previously thought.