Treatment of drug and alcohol abuse in spinal cord injury veterans.

An innovative program has been developed at the VAMC in Long Beach, California, for the treatment of spinal cord injured veterans who are also drug or alcohol dependent. The program employs a multimodal therapeutic community model in which patients progress through successive phases, each involving increasing responsibilities and privileges. This presentation deals with the design and results of a research instrument created for the evaluation of the Drug Dependence Treatment Program (DDTP). The instrument is a posttreatment, parameter study of the multidisciplinary program. The questions asked of former patients of the DDTP were designed to investigate intrapersonal and interpersonal integration, both directly and discreetly. Questions were asked regarding arrests, length of time at domicile, hospital admissions, and use of drugs or alcohol--specifically, present use of the substance misused at the time of admission to treatment. Life-style stability or change was investigated and confirmed with collateral support, as evidenced by comparing information drawn from the 3-month period prior to admission to the treatment program with the 3-month period immediately preceding administration of the instrument. Results from the preliminary data support substantial gain in individual patient psychological and social integration. It is significant that 56% of former patients were not using treatment admission drugs.