Prevalence of alcohol and substance use relapse in forensic inpatients with substance use disorders in Germany

A high relapse rate is still a reality of forensic addiction treatment. Static factors alone might only have a small predictive value for substance relapses and are not sufficient to fully predict individual risk. Therefore our findings show a need to focus on dynamic factors that affect consumption relapse rates. Considering the findings of this research, future studies should investigate dynamic factors of the patient's substance use behavior during treatment as a whole (e.g. reason for relapsing, choice of drug etc.), identify and investigate other factors affecting relapse rate and uncover possible treatment interventions that might reduce relapse rates, dropout rates and criminal recidivism.