Introduction: program quality in substance dependency treatment.

The purpose of this volume of articles is to present the current "state of the art" in conceptualization and research concerning program quality in substance dependency treatment, which includes the following topics: How should treatment program outcomes be defined? How can research-based quality treatment be disseminated to the field? What is the role of innovative accreditation models in promoting treatment quality? How can the conceptualization and measurement of the treatment process be improved? What more can we learn about elements of program/treatment quality from the research base? These issues are explored theoretically and empirically in 20 original articles.