Retaining cocaine-abusing women in a therapeutic community: the effect of a child live-in program.

A clinical trial examined whether retention of cocaine-abusing women in a therapeutic community can be improved by permitting their children to live with them during treatment. Fifty-three women were randomly assigned to either the standard community condition (n = 22), in which children were placed with the best available caretaker, or the demonstration condition (n = 31), in which one or two of the children lived with their mother in the community. Survival analysis distributions indicated that demonstration women remained in treatment significantly longer than standard treatment women. (Mean length of stay was 300.4 days vs 101.9 days, respectively.)

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes