[Treating drug dependent patients through outpatient group therapy-Serigaya Methamphetamine Relapse Prevention Program (SMARPP)].

Drug addiction in Japan is a field of clinical psychiatry that occasionally poses questions concerning legal status of the patients abusing illicit drugs. In other countries, continuing care perspective and harm reduction policy is gradually becoming the main current of the addiction psychiatry. There are several clinical projects in Japanese psychiatric hospitals and public health centers attempting to motivate and treat drug dependent patients through outpatient group therapy. SMARPP is one of such projects with promising results concerning the efficacy on treatment retention.