What are the long term substance use recovery rates following discharge from a treatment program?
Substance use is a chronic health condition and like all chronic conditions cannot be “cured” but can be managed. While there are many studies with different percentages about how many people stay abstinent post treatment, generally it appears that we can expect that at one-year post treatment completion that about 40-60% will have returned to substance use. The converse of this is that 40-60% will still be abstinent. Studies do indicate that even those who return to substance use have a lower level of use. These findings of the rate of return to substance use post treatment discharge have resulted in new ideas about the need for ongoing recovery monitoring as we do with other chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
