Addiction treatment outcomes, process and change: Texas Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University

ABSTRACT For more than 40 years the Texas Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) has given special attention to assessment and evaluation of drug user populations, addiction treatment services and various cognitive and behavioral interventions. Emphasis has been on studies in real‐world settings and the use of multivariate methodologies to address evaluation issues within the context of longitudinal natural designs. Historically, its program of addiction treatment research may be divided into three sequential epochs—the first era dealt mainly with client assessment and its role in treatment outcome and evaluation (1969–89), the second focused upon modeling the treatment process and the importance of conceptual frameworks (1989–2009) in explaining the relationships among treatment environment, client attributes, treatment process and outcome, and the third (and current) era has expanded into studying tactical deployment of innovations and implementation. Recent projects focus upon adapting and implementing innovations for improving early engagement in adolescent residential treatment settings and drug‐dependent criminal justice populations. Related issues include the spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and other infectious diseases, organizational and systems functioning, treatment costs and process related to implementation of evidence‐based practices.