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Education Level May Impact Drug Treatment Outcome

Researchers associated with the McLean Hospital Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment program in Belmont, MA recruited 101 alcohol-dependent men and women and interviewed them on a monthly basis for one year in order to determine the relationship between educational status and drinking outcomes after treatment. The participants in the study were placed in two distinct categories, those with a “high school education or less,” and those with “some college or more.” Those with a high school education or less were more likely to relapse after treatment, to have a greater proportion of drinking days and heavy drinking days during the follow-up period (3 or more drinks per occasion for women, and 5 or more for men), and to have fewer days before their first drink and first relapse.
A number of factors may account for the relationship between lower educational achievement and poor treatment outcomes. For example, learning disabilities, difficulties in problem-solving, and attention-deficit disorders have been associated with relapse, and may prevent an individual from completing educational goals. Furthermore, those with lower levels of education (even those without learning disabilities) may not be able to take full advantage of treatment.

Written treatment information is often aimed toward an educational range between the 11th grade and college sophomore level, while studies have shown that the average patient in substance abuse treatment programs tested below 9th-grade reading ability. Patients with lower education and lower verbal abilities may not respond well to group and individual therapies that are an integral part of most treatment programs.

Based on the findings of this and previous studies, researchers suggest that treatment services may need to tailor treatments to meet the special needs of individuals with lower educational attainment.

(Greenfield, SF, Sugarman, DE, Muenz, LR, Patterson, MD, He, DY, Weiss, RD: The relationship between educational attainment and relapse among alcohol-dependent men and women: A prospective study. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 27: 1278–1285, 2003.)

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