Multidimensional impact of treatment for substance abuse.

The establishment of a multi-facility patient registry system has facilitated the routine documentation of problems associated with substance abuse. The comparison of information on 1,020 adult inpatients from the six-month period before and the six-month and twelve-month periods after treatment is reported. The multidimensional approach to program evaluation suggests significant economic impact of inpatient treatment on vocational functioning, health care demands, and arrests. Treatment for alcohol and other substance abuse appears to have an extremely significant potential for economic payback to local, state and federal governments, insurance providers, corrections agencies, private industry, and, of course, patients and their families.