Service Needs of Clients in Outpatient Substance-Use Disorder Treatment : A Latent Class Analysis

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are common classes of service needs among clients in outpatient substance-use disorder treatment. Data for this study were derived from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Survey. This study focused on clients in outpatient treatment (N=2,256). The majority of the subjects were male (74%). Latent class analysis was used to explore different class solutions. A four-class solution exhibited the best fit with the data. Based on the features of the classes, the classes were named "multiple needs," "interpersonal needs," "financial needs," and "low needs." Validation analysis showed that psychiatric problems exhibited the strongest associations with the multiple needs class. With service needs extending beyond substance-abuse treatment problems, a classification seems to aid in characterizing the heterogeneity of this population and is suggested of the need for packaged service approaches.