Association between the discontinuation of substance use inpatient treatment and the risk of committing a crime leading to imprisonment: A Finnish registry-based 5-year follow-up.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Discontinuation of substance use inpatient treatment is common, generally due to dropout and rule breaking. In turn, this is associated with worse long-term substance use outcomes. AIM: To investigate whether people who discontinued voluntary inpatient substance use treatment have a higher risk of imprisonment for a crime within 5 years of discontinuance than those who completed treatment. METHODS: This registry-based follow-up study focused on all inpatient treatment episodes between 2002 and 2009 (N = 2893) in a Finnish hospital for treating addictions. Data from national registers on criminality, hospitalisations and education were linked. Cox regression analysis was used. RESULTS: Discontinued treatment episodes were 1.4 times more likely to be followed by criminality leading to imprisonment during the 5-year follow-up period compared with completed treatment periods, after adjusting for age, gender, education, substance use diagnoses, earlier mental health disorders and prior imprisonments. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings strengthen the argument for ensuring completion of substance use treatment episodes; better completion rates could decrease the harm caused by serious criminality. Indeed, we recommend that crime reduction should be included to the long-term goals of substance use treatment.