A national survey of the use of couples therapy in substance abuse treatment

Although results from multiple studies conducted over the last two decades indicate that Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT) is an effective treatment fo r married or cohabiting alcohol- and drug-abusing patients, both in terms o f reduced substance use and improved relationship satisfaction, it is uncle ar whether BCT or other types of couples-based interventions are used in co mmunity-based substance abuse treatment programs. In the present study, pro gram administrators (e.g., executive directors, clinical directors, staff p hysicians) from 398 randomly selected community-based outpatient substance abuse treatment programs in the U.S. were interviewed regarding use of diff erent family- and couples-based therapies in their programs. According to t he program administrators, 27% of the programs provided some type of couple s-based treatment. However, less than 5% of the agencies used behaviorally oriented couples therapy and none used BCT specifically. Recommendations fo r researchers and clinicians to increase the use of BCT in community-based treatment programs are provided. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.