Length of stay and treatment completion for mothers with substance abuse issues in integrated treatment programmes

Aim: To examine the effects of integrated treatment programmes (those with addiction services and pregnancy-, parenting- or child-related services) on length of stay and treatment completion.Methods: We systematically reviewed studies published between 1990 and 2008 comparing integrated programmes with non-integrated programmes on length of stay (number of studies [K] = 3, number of participants [n] = 1910) and treatment completion (K = 6, n = 2556). We performed meta-analyses using standardized mean differences (d) of effect size estimates.Findings: There was a significant advantage of integrated treatment programmes over non-integrated treatment in the number of days women spent in treatment (d = 0.35, p < 0.0001) but not treatment completion (d = 0.38, p = 0.09).Conclusions: This meta-analysis is the first systematic quantitative review of studies evaluating the impact of integrated programmes. Findings suggest that integrated programmes may be associated with a small advantage over non-integrated prog...