Adam Fernandez

11 May 2020

HLTH 309

Is the Treatment Working?

For my research question I decided to look into rehabilitation centers for those

who are addicted. The research question I came up with is, What effect does a

rehabilitation center have on its participants once they are released? In other words we

are simply testing to see what the average success rates of these clinics have for their

patients. The independent variable in this study is having treatment for addiction and the

dependent variable is if the treatment worked well for its users or not. I decided to

choose this review because I often find advertisements from rehabilitation centers

boasting a “98% success rate” or something along those lines, but when you watch

shows and hear stories about celebrity treatment it seems like a joke. So I am trying to

find out the truth behind them and see for myself if they actually are working.

The studies I came across used databases that included surveys conducted on

people who had received treatment and most were voluntary. Meaning that the patients

were filling this out by their own choice. It is highly likely that this creates a bias as those

who have successfully stayed away from drugs are more likely to do the survey than

those who were not. Why would someone shamefully submit a survey in which they are

stating that they are still addicted to a substance. Those who have succeeded will feel

proud of their accomplishment and fill these out with ease, as or can make them feel

even better for changing their lives. Another issue with the database is that the
researcher can pick and choose the information he uses and likely skew the results to

his opinion. Although, a strength is the massive number of participants that these other

studies can give access to. Another method used was a focus group. They interviewed

drug dependent people that were not mentally ill and found out if they had a period of

abstinence. They used this to determine the reason for relapse. For this study all

participants were “incarcerated in the Hunan Xinkaipu Compulsory Isolated Drug

Rehabilitation Center (XCIR) located in Changsha, China. This is a compulsory

rehabilitation institution for males only, which accommodates over 1,000 individuals who

engage in drug use” (​Yang, Mei, et al, 2015). The study went down to only 20 users. So

as you can see it was a very small sample size that covers a small region. As they all

are in the same location and have similarities. Recruitment was also done by one single

counselor so he also may have shown bias. This research was strong in finding out

personal aspects of addiction that may relate to some people, but the sample size is just

too small to relay back to all people with an addiction.

In a separate study they introduced a discrete modeling of drinking that also had

three controls that made up awareness programs, encouragement, and follow-up. The

numerical simulation that was created showed how effective certain strategies were

(Khajji, B., Labzai, A., Kouidere, A., Balatif, O., & Rachik, M. 2020). This type of

research was based on statistics and creating an equation so it leaves little to no room

for bias, which the other two methods can not relate to. The weakness is the lack of

personal touch. You learn no reason behind all of it. You simply get numbers and data
behind it. They are useful statistics nonetheless, but statistics alone will not help the

issue.

For the research methods gone over above we see that all students have their

strengths and weaknesses. Some types of research are more useful in different

situations. For example, if we wanted to find out what reason some people are relapsing

from their abstinence then a focus group with only a few participants who can speak

from personal experience would help to understand others in their situation. If we

wanted only statistics then a mathematical model would be a much better help. The

point is no one research method will be flawless and find a solution, but a combination

of many studies put together can truly make a difference in the issues that you are

trying to face.
 Works Cited

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