Long-term treatment outcomes good for adults, poor for youths.

Continuing a tradition it established several years ago in releasing the latest advances in addiction treatment outcomes research in September, the federal government last week issued a report stating that addiction treatment results in a 21 percent reduction in overall illicit drug use a full five years after treatment.

While the study released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) Office of Applied Studies breaks new ground in that it is based on a nationally representative sample and looks at results five years after treatment, it also presents one major disappointing finding: Adolescents are not experiencing the same positive results from treatment that adults do.

In fact, …