What Is Evidence-Based Addiction Treatment?
Evidence-based treatment (EBT) is yet another facet of the rehabilitation, recovery, and medical worlds that means exactly what it sounds like: the application of the best available, most reliable evidence gained from the scientific method used to guide clinical decision making. This science is gathered from repeated tests of the therapies. If the therapies work across multiple studies, they are deemed evidence-based. Essentially, evidence-based means that though the treatments might be cutting edge, unfamiliar or holistic, they have been empirically proven to work.
EBT practices are diverse and range across the gamut of medical, clinical, holistic, and extended-care practices. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, “evidence-based medicine is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values. Evidence-based medicine is an interdisciplinary approach that uses techniques from science, engineering, biostatistics, and epidemiology, such as meta-analysis, decision analysis, risk-benefit analysis, and randomized controlled trials to deliver” the correct form of treatments to patients as they are necessary.
That is to say, evidence-based therapies are analyzed rigorously through a variety of intersecting lenses that, through their diversity, offer credibility to and affirmation of a therapy’s effectiveness.
Psychiatric medication and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are, for example, some of the most widely known and traditionally recognized EBT methods and are utilized in addiction treatment programs such as outpatient rehab. Mindfulness meditation has also been proven to be an effective treatment modality in multiple, sanctioned scientific studies, thus bringing it into the fold of recognized EBT practices.
Drug Addiction Treatment Rehab and Recovery
It is fairly logical that there is no substitute for evidence-based practices. Otherwise, such practices could be regarded as ‘snake oil’ at the very least and cause harm or complications at the worst. At Chicago Rehab Center, all of the practices we employ in the treatment of substance use and mental health disorders are evidence-based. Our repeatable successes affirm the efficacy of our treatment modalities.
Dr. Beth Dunlap, a board-certified addiction medicine and family medicine physician, is the medical director at CRC Institute, where she is responsible for overseeing all the integrated medical services at the Institute. Beth completed medical school, residency, and fellowship at Northwestern University, where she continues to serve on the faculty as a member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She has extensive experience in addiction medicine at all levels of care, and her clinical interests include integrated primary care and addiction medicine, harm reduction, and medication-assisted treatment.
