The Intensive Treatment Unit: A brief inpatient detoxification facility demonstrating good postdetoxification treatment entry

Inpatient detoxification is frequently used to treat substance use disorders, despite consistent findings that drug use soon after detoxification is the norm. A number of lines of evidence suggest the most rational means of improving outcomes after detoxification is to improve postdetoxification treatment entry. This report presents outcomes from the Intensive Treatment Unit (ITU), a brief inpatient detoxification unit in Baltimore, MD, found to have good postdischarge treatment entry outcomes. The patients followed were predominantly male African Americans in early middle age who were sequentially admitted to the unit (N = 134) and demonstrated severe social disruption and psychiatric comorbidity. More than 80% of the patients discharged from the ITU were admitted to treatment postdetoxification, with most going to long-term residential settings or recovery houses. Success was associated with seeking residential treatment, and failure was concentrated among the minority discharged with no plan for aftercare and those seeking outpatient treatments. The report explores patient and process factors associated with these outcomes and discusses the possibility that the ITU may be a model system for improving outcomes postdetoxification.