Background
Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is one of the most urgent public health challenges in America:
- 1 in 4 families is affected by Substance Use Disorder (SUD), and it cuts across every income level, profession, and neighborhood (1).
- Approximately 76,500 people died from drug overdose each year (2).
- The aggregate cost of addiction is more than $700 billion per year (3).
Yet despite the scale of the crisis, thousands of families struggle to find quality treatment that actually works. Too often they encounter programs that don’t measure outcomes, have high relapse rates, and no accountability.
Most people assume addiction treatment is standardized and accountable. It isn’t. The majority of programs cannot tell families how well their treatment works. As a result, most families have no way to compare treatment quality across programs.
But here’s the good news: Treatment programs that routinely measure client progress and adjust care based on data achieve increased treatment completion, symptom improvement and fewer relapses. For example, Trac9 measures the combination of symptom reduction and resilience building factors most associated with successful recovery. Programs using Trac9 have, on average, 21% greater treatment completion, 42% greater symptom improvement, and 29% fewer relapses.
Look for treatment programs that:
- Measure outcomes and show progress reports
- Use evidence-based care
- Provide individualized treatment—not one-size-fits-all
- Report real data—not marketing claims
How you can make a difference:
- For families: Ask treatment providers: “How do you measure progress?”
- For community leaders: Support results-based treatment programs.
Every family deserves treatment that truly works.
Click here to download a PDF of this Trac9 Insight.
(1). McCabe, S. E., Schepis, T. S., & McCabe, V. V. (2025). Prevalence and correlates of parental substance use disorder among US children, 2023. JAMA Pediatrics. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/millions-us-kids-live-parentssubstance-use-disorders
(2). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025, September 18). Data resources: Overdose prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
(3). National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020). Trends and statistics: Costs of substance abuse. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugsbrains-behavior-science-addiction/introduction
