Research Outcomes

• AToN Center strives to be the most cutting-edge, evidence-based program available for treating substance misuse. In alignment with this aim, we have been reporting our research and outcomes since 2011.
• In an effort to step up our game even further, we have joined with a third party, Vista Research Group, who has begun monitoring our outcomes. This group not only monitors our resident’s weekly progress, but they also contact our residents periodically after their discharge in order to give AToN feedback about our Alumni outcomes.
• The intention of this move is twofold. First, as our outcomes will be monitored by a program outside of AToN, our numbers can be trusted even more! We all know that many programs “fudge” numbers in an attempt to place their center in a positive light. This unbiased group verifies AToN’s honesty!
• Second, despite our amazing results, we have been unable to compare our outcomes with other programs. The Vista Research Group represents a number of treatment centers so our results are compared to national norms AND these other treatment centers using the same group.
• AToN Center just received our first “Treatment Effectiveness Report” and we are delighted to share this report with you! This report is broken into three major portions: Patient characteristics upon intake, progress during treatment, and treatment success. Our data is from 114 residents who attended treatment at AToN between September 2017 and June 2018.

Over half of our residents participating were male (61%) and the majority of our residents were in a stable living environment (95%). Our residents have typically attained a high level of education, with 62% holding a degree of some sort. Around one-third (31%) of our residents came to treatment because friends or family encouraged them to seek treatment, while 50% of our residents reported seeking treatment because they “became tired of living this way.” Alcohol was overwhelmingly the primary substance of choice (56%), while heroin (11%), opiates (11%) and benzodiazepines (8%) were also common. A strong majority of residents at AToN (85%) met the definition for having a severe substance use disorder and 34% of respondents reported having no prior treatment prior to attending AToN.

While AToN Center if a substance use primary program, our clinical staff is highly equipped to treat dual diagnoses. Upon intake, 68% of the respondents reported moderate to severe symptoms of depression. Anxiety was also highly reported with 63% endorsing moderate to severe symptoms. Of our residents, 54% reported symptoms indicative of post-traumatic stress disorder. Of note – four of our full time psychologists are either certified in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), or in the process of being certified in EMDR with the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA).

Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder were measured upon admission and discharge to ascertain the resident’s progress during treatment. There was a decrease of depression symptoms from 72% to 14% as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). There was a decrease of anxiety symptoms from 64% to 23% as measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). Lastly, there was a decrease in trauma symptoms from 57% to 19% as measured by the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-6).