The Effect of a No-Smoking Policy on Recruitment and Retention in Outpatient Cocaine Treatment

Abstract

Historically, directors of substance abuse treatment programs have been reluctant to adopt a smoke-free policy because of the fear of patient attrition. According to a recent survey, however, a number of program directors now believe that such fears may be unwarranted. The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact on admissions and attendance of adopting a smoke-free policy at a cocaine treatment program offering outpatient group therapy sessions 3 half days a week. Results indicated that implementation of this policy had no impact on the number of patients who sought treatment at the facility or the number of group sessions patients attended. It was also noteworthy that for a sample of cases active in the month prior to and the month following the ban there were no changes in attendance patterns or in the proportion of patients failing to return from a 10-15 minute therapy break despite the fact that 89% of these patients were cigarette smokers.