Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
A-Clinic Foundation, Helsinki, Finland.
Crim Behav Ment Health. 2021 Jun;31(3):171-182. doi: 10.1002/cbm.2198. Epub 2021 May 5.
Discontinuation of substance use inpatient treatment is common, generally due to dropout and rule breaking. In turn, this is associated with worse long-term substance use outcomes.
To investigate whether people who discontinued voluntary inpatient substance use treatment have a higher risk of imprisonment for a crime within 5 years of discontinuance than those who completed treatment.
This registry-based follow-up study focused on all inpatient treatment episodes between 2002 and 2009 (N = 2893) in a Finnish hospital for treating addictions. Data from national registers on criminality, hospitalisations and education were linked. Cox regression analysis was used.
Discontinued treatment episodes were 1.4 times more likely to be followed by criminality leading to imprisonment during the 5-year follow-up period compared with completed treatment periods, after adjusting for age, gender, education, substance use diagnoses, earlier mental health disorders and prior imprisonments.
Our findings strengthen the argument for ensuring completion of substance use treatment episodes; better completion rates could decrease the harm caused by serious criminality. Indeed, we recommend that crime reduction should be included to the long-term goals of substance use treatment.
物质使用住院治疗的中断很常见，通常是由于辍学和违反规定。反过来，这与更糟糕的长期物质使用结果有关。
调查与完成治疗的人相比，停止自愿住院物质使用治疗的人在停止治疗后 5 年内因犯罪而被监禁的风险是否更高。
这项基于登记的随访研究集中在芬兰一家治疗成瘾的医院 2002 年至 2009 年期间的所有住院治疗（N=2893）。从国家犯罪、住院和教育登记处获取数据，并进行链接。使用 Cox 回归分析。
调整年龄、性别、教育程度、物质使用诊断、先前的心理健康障碍和先前的监禁后，与完成治疗期相比，中断治疗期在 5 年随访期间发生导致监禁的犯罪的可能性高出 1.4 倍。
我们的发现加强了确保完成物质使用治疗的论点；更高的完成率可以减少严重犯罪造成的伤害。事实上，我们建议将减少犯罪纳入物质使用治疗的长期目标。
