Measuring outcomes in a health service addiction clinic

The aim of the study was to identify a method for the routine monitoring of outcomes in a busy city centre health service addiction clinic. The setting for the study was a health service addiction clinic serving a population of seven hundred and fifty thousand people. Study participants were two hundred and thirty consecutive attenders for treatment of alcohol and heroin dependence and misuse. A brief interview to obtain demographic and use data and a short battery of self completion questionnaires measuring dependence, psychological health and social satisfaction were administered at three data collection points. Different methods of follow-up were explored. The instruments used were capable of measuring change in levels of consumption, degrees of dependence, psychological health and social satisfaction over a three month period in over sixty-five per cent of the original sample while over eighty per cent of the original sample were accounted for. It was concluded that routine monitoring of outcomes of a busy National Health Service can provide meaningful clinical data for an acceptable sample of patients within a realistic resource limit.