Insight, Motivation and Outcome in Drug Treatment for Offenders: A Review of the Recent Literature

Researchers in addiction and psychotherapy have long agreed that insight into problem severity and motivation for treatment are important client factors in successful treatment. For offenders these factors are linked to recidivism and relapse rates post-treatment. Authors in both fields agree that the combination of insight and motivation are key to positive treatment outcomes. However, this literature review found little effort to measure these factors in substance abuse literature with offenders. Articles identified contained the terms ‘motivation;’ ‘insight;’ and ‘drug treatment’ were paired with the term ‘offenders’ in varying combinations to identify articles meeting study criteria. Inductive analysis revealed that the majority of the articles did not measure insight and motivation, nor did they measure outcomes. Only seven of the 16 articles included measures of insight and motivation. Of these, only one study measured outcome as well. In addition, qualitative aspects of insight and motivation were not accounted for by assessments used. Recommendations for future research include measuring insight and motivation as well as treatment outcome, and tailoring treatment for this population accordingly, so as to better predict recidivism rates post-treatment.