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

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.