The effect of therapist/patient race- and sex-matching in individual treatment

Aims. Equivocal findings of the effect that therapist and patient similarit y plays in treatment outcome led us to examine the impact of race- and sex- matching on treatment retention and outcome for a sample of people seeking outpatient substance abuse treatment. Design. Patient and therapist charact eristics were crossed in a 2 x 2 factorial design. Matching effects were th en tested using retrospective data. Participants. Participants were 116 Afr ican-American cocaine-dependent people. Setting. The study site was a unive rsity-sponsored outpatient treatment facility located in an economically de pressed area of a large Northeastern US city. Measurements. Follow-up data were drawn from the Addiction Severity Index, the Risk for AIDS Behavior In ventory and a questionnaire measuring post-discharge need for treatment, em ployment and education. Retention was defined as the number of days inclusi ve between the last date of service and the date admitted. Findings. No mea ningful effects in favor of matching were observed on outcome measures. Con clusion. While matching therapists and drug-dependent people does not appea r to be essential in promoting positive retention and outcome, limitations of this study that include sample size and the homogeneous demographic natu re of those seeking therapeutic services at our facility lead us to conclud e that replication with a larger number of therapists and patients is neede d. In a different therapeutic setting, with a different population presenti ng for treatment, the mismatching of patients and therapists with respect t o factors such as those explored here might well yield differing results.