Special Topic Section Evaluation of Treatment Eur Addict Res 2002;8:22–29 Effectiveness of a Therapeutic Community Treatment in Spain: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study José-Ramo ´ n Ferna ´ ndez-Hermida Roberto Secades-Villa José-Javier Ferna ´ ndez-Ludeña Pedro-Antonio Marina-Gonza ´ lez Faculty of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain José-Ramo ´ n Ferna ´ ndez-Hermida Facultad de Psicologı ´a, Universidad de Oviedo Plaza Feijoo s/n E–33003 Oviedo (Spain) Tel. +34 98 5104163, Fax +34 98 5104144, E-Mail jrhermid@correo.uniovi.es ABC Fax + 41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com © 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel 1022–6877/02/0081–0022$18.50/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/journals/ear Key Words Program evaluation W Therapeutic community W Drug treatment W Drug addiction Abstract In this paper, the effectiveness of the treatment program developed by Proyecto Hombre (‘Project Mankind’) in Asturias, Spain, is evaluated. In a long-term follow-up (range from 73 days to 8 years) with a sample of 249 sub- jects, the results obtained by subjects completing the treatment (194) were compared with pre-treatment re- sults and with those of the group that dropped out (55). The measurements used were relapses in illegal drugs, alcohol, changes in family situation, educational level, employment, criminal involvement and state of health. External validation of self-report measures given in the questionnaire was carried out. Findings support the ef- fectiveness of the treatment in all measures and the val- idity of self-report items. Relapse rate in ‘treatment-com- pleted’ group was 10.3%, whilst in the non-completers group it reached 63.6% (significant difference, p ! 0.001). Relapses of non-completers were more severe, occurred sooner after leaving the program (they stayed abstinent for shorter periods) and lasted longer than those of sub- jects completing the treatment. Copyright © 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Evaluation of Results in Therapeutic Communities (TC) In the specialized literature we can find an abundance of references to studies that have assessed the treatment carried out in TC for drug abusers. The origins of research in this field are clearly North American [1–3]. However, since the eighties there has been extensive and growing European concern with the evaluation of TC treatment outcomes [2, 3]. ‘The mainstream European TC follow-up research’ [2, p. 32] involves work from eight European countries, among which Spain is not included, not because its contri- bution has been overlooked, but because Spanish research in this field is indeed scarce. Indeed, when Ferna ´ ndez- Hermida and Secades-Villa [4] reviewed studies pub-