The effectiveness of three inpatient intervention strategies for chemically dependent women

Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of three inpatient sub stance abuse intervention strategies for women:female-sensitive treatment, mixed-gender treatment, and combination mixed-gender/female-sensitive treat ment. Method: Eighty-nine women in three treatment facilities were evaluate d over a 3-month period on levels of self-esteem, social support, depressio n, and severity of addiction. It was hypothesized that (1) these women woul d exhibit lower levels of self-esteem and perceived social support and high er levels of depression compared to the median scores of each instrument an d (2) women in all three groups would experience improvement on the outcome variables over the ii-month period, with the female-sensitive intervention producing the greatest improvement. Results: Results supported Hypothesis 1 for social support but not depression or self-esteem. Hypothesis 2 was no t supported; none of the groups improved on any outcome measures. Conclusio n: The results underscore the necessity for more research on effectiveness of various treatment approaches for chemically dependent women.