Effectiveness of node-link mapping enhanced counseling for opiate addicts: a 12-month posttreatment follow-up.

Drug abuse counseling was enhanced by node-link mapping, a visual representation technique, and evaluated in a posttreatment follow-up study. Clients randomly assigned to receive mapping counseling reported less criminal activity 12 months after treatment than did clients in the standard counseling condition. It was also found that among clients staying less than 6 months in treatment, those in the mapping group had fewer urine samples that tested positive for opiates at follow-up. Thus, mapping-enhanced counseling may be especially beneficial for clients who leave treatment prematurely.