Click to go to the table of Contents

1993-2003 Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Report of Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions

Chapter 6
Detoxification: 2003

The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) records the type of service to which clients are admitted for treatment. The categories used are broadly defined as ambulatory, rehabilitation/residential, and detoxification. (See Appendix B for details.)

In 2003, 61 percent of admissions were to ambulatory (intensive or non-intensive outpatient) treatment, 22 percent were to detoxification, and 17 percent were to rehabilitation/residential treatment [Table 3.6]. Admissions to detoxification treatment represent a special category of admissions. They are generally initiated because of an acute need for medical care. Detoxification is ideally followed by a transfer to either outpatient or rehabilitation/residential treatment. However, this may not occur, or may not be traceable in the TEDS data collection system. (See Chapter 1.)

TEDS records three types of detoxification services. These are:

• Hospital inpatient. 24-hour per day medical acute care services in a hospital setting for detoxification of persons with severe medical complications associated with withdrawal.
   

• Free-standing rehabilitation/residential. 24-hour per day services in a non-hospital setting providing for safe withdrawal and transition to ongoing treatment.
   

• Ambulatory detoxification. Outpatient services providing for safe withdrawal in an ambulatory setting (pharmacological or non-pharmacological).

In 2003, 73 percent of detoxification admissions were to free-standing rehabilitation/residential detoxification, 19 percent were hospital inpatient, and 8 percent were ambulatory [Table 6.3].

Table 6.1a, Table 6.1b, and Table 6.2a. Over four-fifths of admissions to detoxification were for primary alcohol (50 percent) or opiates (31 percent). Cocaine accounted for 11 percent of detoxification admissions, and stimulants and marijuana for 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively. The demographic characteristics of admissions to detoxification were slightly different than those for all admissions [Table 3.1a and Table 3.2a]. Detoxification admissions were more likely to be male (75 percent vs. 69 percent of all admissions), Hispanic (16 percent vs. 13 percent of all admissions), and older (average age 38 vs. average age 34 for all admissions).

Table 6.3. Admissions to detoxification were more likely to be self-referred (61 percent) than were all admissions (34 percent) [Table 3.5] and less likely to enter treatment through the criminal justice system (10 percent vs. 36 percent). For heroin admissions to detoxification, opioid treatment (treatment with the medications methadone, LAAM, or buprenorphine) was less likely to be planned than it was for all heroin admissions (18 percent vs. 32 percent) [Table 3.6].

Table 6.4. Daily use was reported by 78 percent of detoxification admissions, compared with 43 percent of all admissions [Table 3.4]. More than one-third of detoxification admissions (37 percent) were entering treatment for the first time, compared with 43 percent of all admissions, and 18 percent had been in treatment 5 or more times previously, compared with 10 percent of all admissions [Table 3.5].

[Go to Tables]

This page was last updated on May 16, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.