DATStats: results from 85 studies using the Drug Abuse Treatment Cost Analysis Program (DATCAP)
Open accessAbstract
The Drug Abuse Treatment Cost Analysis Program (DATCAP) was developed and launched in the early 1990s to help addiction researchers and administrators estimate the economic costs of substance abuse interventions. This paper presents summary results from 85 DATCAPs completed over the past 10 years. After first grouping the DATCAPs into 9 treatment modalities, cost measures (normalized to 2001 dollars) are reported along with client caseload information. Additionally, the distribution of costs across 6 resource categories is presented for each of the treatment modalities. The average weekly economic cost per client ranged from 82 US dollars per week for outpatient drug court interventions to 1,138 US dollars per week for adolescent residential treatment. As expected, labor was overwhelmingly the most utilized resource across all modalities, ranging from 48% to 88% of total economic cost. Addiction researchers, program administrators, and policymakers now have cost estimates and resource distribution information for various treatment modalities serving diverse populations.
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Roebuck, French, and McLellan (2003) published the first summary article of all DATCAP studies to date, which amounted to 85 substance abuse treatment programs across 9 modalities.
“Roebuck, French, and McLellan (2003) published the first summary article of all DATCAP studies to date, which amounted to 85 substance abuse treatment programs across 9 modalities.”
From The economic costs of substance abuse treatment: Updated estimates and cost bands for program assessment and reimbursement (2008) · cites this paper as Roebuck, French, and McLellan (2003)
The Discussion (page not provided) calls this a summary article and says it assembled 85 treatment programs into 9 modalities. The Introduction and Data management section (pages not provided) describe the 85 DATCAPs as work completed by the authors and their colleagues; our copy does not establish that this was the first summary article or that it covered all DATCAP studies to date. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 17 · Cited by 72
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- Authors
- Roebuck, M. C., French, M. T., & McLellan, A. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Miami (US)
- Treatment Research Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- French, Michael T.
- Venue
- Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003-07
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 51-57
- ISSN
- 0740-5472 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2086274407
- Cited by
- 72
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 3.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA013167, R01 AA 13167)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA11506, P50-DA07705, P50DA007705, R01DA011506)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Keywords
- treatment options, labor costs, resource allocation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Ambulatory Care, Costs and Cost Analysis, Data Collection, Health Resources, Humans, Length of Stay, Long-Term Care, Managed Care Programs, Mathematical Computing, Patient Care Team, Residential Treatment, Software, United States, Databases, Factual, Health Care Costs, Substance-Related Disorders
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