TRI Treatment Research Institute

ABOUT TRI

Science Over Addiction

The Treatment Research Institute is a not-for-profit research and development organization dedicated to reducing the devastating effects of alcohol and other drug abuse on individuals, families and communities by employing scientific methods and disseminating evidence-based information.

With a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, TRI was founded in 1991 by A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., Jack Durell, M.D. and a small team of colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania. Their goal: improve the practice and policy of addictions through the power of science.

From a modest beginning, sixteen years later TRI’s influence has grown, becoming a well-known incubator of ideas, a place where researchers and other specialists team with policy makers and practitioners to evaluate what works, what doesn’t, and why – and share the results with those most able to effect change. Along the way, TRI has applied a solutions-oriented approach to many of the most daunting issues confronting the field of addictions:

Six years after a seminal study by A. Thomas McLellan and others noted the similarities between addiction and chronically relapsing medical conditions, the C3 Center at TRI brings together the best and brightest researchers to develop and test affordable, long-term monitoring and management protocols for substance abuse patients.
TRI investigators were the first to show that involvement of judges in drug courts is critical to outcomes for high-risk offenders. In 2006, these and other TRI findings were instrumental in reforming California’s Proposition 36 alternative to incarceration program.
In a bid to rescue the nation’s struggling substance abuse treatment system, TRI and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania have established the Center on the Organization and Management of Addiction Treatment, where substance abuse researchers team with industry and management specialists to systematically apply lessons learned from other, once-plagued industries.
A project to systematically unite the fields of addiction and mainstream medical health care, “PRISM,” was launched in 2002 under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. By 2006, TRI was partnering with four of the country’s most prestigious medical societies to teach physicians how to adjust treatment plans for major medical conditions when symptoms of alcohol or drug use are present.

Elsewhere the focus is on interventions for substance abusing offenders, for families of drug-involved patients, and development of empirically derived tools and information management strategies for providers. In one Center, researchers work with state governments to remove impediments to effective practice through organizational, financing and regulatory change. TRI investigators have also documented the economic benefits of substance abuse treatment, and its focus on adolescents will soon yield, with the Partnership for a Drug Free America, a first-of-its-kind resource center for parents who suspect or are confronting drug and alcohol use by their children.

From the time it opened its doors in 1991, it was TRI’s association with the Addiction Severity Index and Treatment Services Review that established the scientific rigor of its work. These two instruments, introduced in the 1980s by McLellan and others from the University of Pennsylvania, revolutionized substance abuse treatment and today are the most widely used assessment instruments in the field, nationally and internationally.

Providing Crucial Expertise

Extending the impact of research through translation and dissemination defines the TRI organizational mission. In four key areas, TRI works to bring research findings to life in addiction policy and practice:

Treatment Improving Assessment, Referral and Tracking Systems

Training and Consultation

Education and Knowledge Dissemination

Adapting and Evaluating Evidence Based Practices in Real World Settings

Research and Development Centers Focus on Continuing Care and Best Practices & Policies

In July 2005, the Center on the Continuum of Care: Monitoring and Adapting Addiction Treatment (“C3 Center”) was launched to develop continuing care protocols for long-term management of substance abuse patients with corresponding evaluation through monitoring and tracking.

At the Wharton-TRI Center for Organization and Management in Addiction Treatment (“COMAT”) TRI partners with management and finance experts from the Wharton School to assess factors plaguing the “business” of addictions treatment. Conferences in 2005 and 2006 were the first of their kind to explore how other industries surmounted similar challenges.

Former SAMHSA official Mady Chalk, Ph.D. joined TRI in 2005 to launch the Center for Policy Analysis and Research where the focus is streamlining government purchasing policies, contracting regulations and other processes that may be inhibiting adoption of best clinical practices in addiction treatment.

Best practices for the drug-involved offender is the focus of the Center for Evidence Based Interventions for Crime and Addiction (“CEICA”), co-directed by Steven Belenko, Ph.D. and Harry Wexler, Ph.D. A 2006 conference, “Implementing and Sustaining Evidence-Based Drug Treatment in Criminal Justice Settings,” brought together a unique mix of policy makers, researchers and practitioners to discuss and achieve consensus on realistic and sustainable strategies for the field to follow.

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