Efficacy of extensive intervention models for substance use disorders: A systematic review

Issues: Despite a growing trend towards considering addiction as a chronic disease, the development of intervention models addressing the chronicity of substance use disorder is relatively new, and no literature review on this topic is available. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy of intervention models designed within the perspective of addiction as a chronic disease and those tailored to persons with substance use disorder who revolve in and out of treatment.

Approach: Electronic databases were searched to identify articles published between 2000 and 2015 reporting an empirical study of an intervention model with data on its effectiveness. Study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal were performed independently by two reviewers.

Key findings: The selection process yielded 16 studies meeting all the inclusion criteria. The intervention models were classified into four groups according to the duration, frequency and components of the interventions. In general, the models showed potential therapeutic effects. The outcomes tended to be positive immediately after the end of the treatment. However, months after, the benefits obtained during treatment did not persist.

Implications and conclusion: The review highlights that models designed specifically for persons with multiple treatment re-entries are scarce, but promising. Further research is needed to determine the best match between the clinical profile of persons with substance use disorder and a model's components, intensity and duration. [Simoneau H, Kamgang E, Tremblay J, Bertrand K, Brochu S, FleuryM-J. Efficacy of extensive interventionmodels for substance use disorders: A systematic review. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;00:000-000].