Jan 18,2019
Dear Hossein,
Treatment retention rates decline with duration of treatment so it would be hard to compare Congress 60’s treatment duration of a year to the typical U.S. duration of 1-3 months. If the rates are similar, Congress 60 is doing a much better job of engaging people and retaining their involvement until long-term recovery is stabilized. That is quite an achievement given your length of treatment.
In the U.S. treatment follow-up studies, about half of those treated continue to be in remission from addiction at the time of follow-up. Although these rates differ somewhat based on the duration of the follow-up. Similarly, when population surveys are conducted about half of people who once had a problem with alcohol or drugs report that they no longer experience such problems. Many in this latter group had problems much less severe than those who entered treatment and achieved recovery without professional treatment.
The periods you note for follow-up at Congress 60 are excellent and, with the urine test data, will be important to publish when all the results are in. I am eager to see and share these results.
I found your discussion of the comparison of OT and methadone very interesting and how the bitterness of OT prevents accidental poisoning of children. I agree that making methadone sweet was a horrible error in judgement.
The involvement of families and children in Congress 60 activities I am sure goes a long way in both promoting family health in recovery and served a prevention function for the children. We need more such involvement in the U.S.
Work on the photo gallery for my website on the history of addiction recovery is progressing, but work has been slowed be recent health problems that Rita is experiencing (back and leg pain). She now has some medicine and physical therapy that we hope will resolve this. At our age, health challenges such as this can be expected and is all part of the cycle of life. Even with such challenges and all the world’s turmoil, life is indeed sweet.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill