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Open research questions in Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

1,964 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 16,230 Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • One of the limitations of this study is that the finding that those who completed the program had a lower mortality rate might be due to the possibility that those graduates had less severe illness, - Retrospective studies lack the more robust benefits of prospective study design, - Missing data is a challenge due to insufficient thoroughness of data entry by the organization's staff

    Retrospective Cohort Study of The Lovelady Center: A large Faith-Based Residential Recovery Program for Women with Substance Use Disorders in the USA · 2026 · DOI

  • retrospective studies lack the more robust benefits of prospective study design, - each variable is difficult to parse out or control to assess it independently of the aggregate of multiple features, - missing data due to insufficient thoroughness of data entry by the organization's staff

    Retrospective Cohort Study of The Lovelady Center: A large Faith-Based Residential Recovery Program for Women with Substance Use Disorders in the USA · 2026 · DOI

  • most studies relied on qualitative methods, - small samples were used, - limited generalizability, - few quantitative papers addressed SUDs in the Orthodox Jewish community, - most papers considered the Orthodox population as a homogeneous group

    Substance Use Disorders in the Orthodox Jewish Community: A Scoping Review · 2026 · DOI

  • quantitative, culturally sensitive studies are needed, - interventions that account for the complex interplay between faith, stigma, and help-seeking are needed, - research on the ultra-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox populations is needed

    Substance Use Disorders in the Orthodox Jewish Community: A Scoping Review · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work could incorporate SHAP values to improve model interpretability tools to visualize how specific features influence predictions and assess potential interactions across subgroups. The study could be extended to stratify model performance by demographic subgroups.

    Using Machine Learning to Predict Features Within Substance Use Disorder Treatment Service Settings That Increase the Likelihood of Positive Treatment Outcomes · 2026 · DOI

  • The current definitions of recovery do not account for individual variations and contextual factors. There is a lack of understanding of the key features associated with positive treatment outcomes. The paper identifies a gap in the use of machine learning to analyze substance use disorder treatment outcomes.

    Using Machine Learning to Predict Features Within Substance Use Disorder Treatment Service Settings That Increase the Likelihood of Positive Treatment Outcomes · 2026 · DOI

  • Participants' avoidance of sexual experiences and romantic relationships due to concerns about triggering substance use recurrence. The need to address prior sexual trauma and reliance on drugs during sex. The challenge of developing effective sexual health education programming in recovery settings.

    Sexual Health and Relationship Education Needs of People in Recovery for an Opioid Use Disorder · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the sexual health concerns of people in recovery for opioid use disorder. Recovery support services rarely address sexual health. Prior work has not fully explored the impact of sexual health concerns on substance use recurrence.

    Sexual Health and Relationship Education Needs of People in Recovery for an Opioid Use Disorder · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the literature regarding the impact of implementation outcomes on substance use in adolescents. The study highlights the need to examine the relationship between individual-level baseline risk and later substance use. The study aims to address the gap by examining the role of participant responsiveness in predicting participant substance use.

    The Role of Program Implementation Quality in Family-Focused Substance-Use Prevention for Youth with Multiple Risks: PROSPER Project · 2026 · DOI

  • The study faced challenges in recruiting organisations to participate in the intervention, particularly primary care service organisations and businesses that sell alcohol or tobacco. Time-constraints and lack of authority to approve local activities were reported as barriers by some organisations. The study also faced challenges in evaluating the effectiveness of the interventions, including the need to adjust for intra-class clustering and the use of multi-level regression analysis.

    Design and Feasibility Trial of Interventions to Reduce Young Adult Alcohol Use with Communities That Care Coalitions · 2026 · DOI

  • Few primary care service staff were in the position to target clients in the 18 to 29 age range. Time-constraints and lack of authority to approve local activities in business franchises managed from central city offices were reported barriers. It may have been possible to recruit some organisations with more time.

    Design and Feasibility Trial of Interventions to Reduce Young Adult Alcohol Use with Communities That Care Coalitions · 2026 · DOI

  • The process, utility, patient-centeredness, and clinicians' beliefs about Urine Drug Screens as part of the assessment and management of SUDs. Technical issues with obtaining Urine Drug reports from clients. The need for stakeholder engagement and co-design of the project plan and objectives.

    Integrating Medications for Addiction Treatment into Assertive Community Treatment Teams: A Pilot Feasibility Study · 2026 · DOI

  • further research is needed to address the challenges with Urine Drug Screens (UDS), - studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm the findings, - research on the long-term effects of MAT-in-ACT intervention is needed, - studies on the cost-effectiveness of the MAT-in-ACT intervention are needed

    Integrating Medications for Addiction Treatment into Assertive Community Treatment Teams: A Pilot Feasibility Study · 2026 · DOI

  • The study was limited by a relatively small sample size. The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to service delivery and data collection. The need to balance the risks of Type I and Type II error in statistical analyses.

    Predictors of Engagement in a Multicomponent Community-Based Intervention Alongside Drug Treatment Court for People with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders and Criminal-Legal Involvement · 2026 · DOI

  • The study relied on a relatively small sample drawn from two DTCs - Limited sample size constrains statistical power and limits the ability to generalize results - Posthoc sensitivity analyses demonstrated modest stability of estimated effects, despite limited sample size

    Predictors of Engagement in a Multicomponent Community-Based Intervention Alongside Drug Treatment Court for People with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders and Criminal-Legal Involvement · 2026 · DOI

  • The study faces challenges in establishing the temporal relationship between substance use disorders and comorbidities. The analysis is limited by the availability of electronic health records (EHR) data. The study must account for multiple testing and potential biases in the data.

    Polygenic risk factors for comorbid diagnoses in individuals with substance use disorders: A phenome-wide survival analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Lack of ability to establish whether potentially time-variant measures were the same before their first SUD diagnosis, - PGS accuracy decays continuously as target samples differ in ancestral background from the discovery GWAS

    Polygenic risk factors for comorbid diagnoses in individuals with substance use disorders: A phenome-wide survival analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research is needed to clarify the biological and behavioral pathways that link education to health, - Investigating the genetic architecture of EA and its intersections with other complex traits could provide insight into the underlying mechanisms

    Education shares distinct genetic influences with substance use and disorder · 2026 · DOI

  • The paradoxical genetic correlations between educational attainment and substance use and disorder are not well understood. The shared genetic architecture of educational attainment and substance-related traits has not been fully examined. The study aims to address this gap by examining the global, regional, and variant-level overlap for educational attainment and substance-related trait pairs.

    Education shares distinct genetic influences with substance use and disorder · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies the challenge of variability among impulsivity measures and the need to account for sample sizes and substance use prevalence rates. It also notes the challenge of achieving adequate power for impulsivity measures to predict substance use initiation, requiring large samples (n > 1,000).

    Impulsivity-related predictors of adolescent substance use initiation · 2026 · DOI

  • future studies must account for sample sizes and substance use prevalence rates to ensure translational utility, - determining how and which impulsivity measures best predict adolescent substance use is essential for developing accurate models of etiology, - examining the relationships among multi-method and multi-domain impulsivity measures is necessary, - developing prevention and intervention strategies based on impulsivity measures is needed

    Impulsivity-related predictors of adolescent substance use initiation · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of understanding of the causal pathways between internalizing and externalizing problems and substance use problems. The need for a longitudinal study to examine the relationship between internalizing and externalizing problems and substance use problems across adolescence and young adulthood. The limited use of co-twin control analysis in substance use research.

    A prospective co-twin control analysis of internalizing and externalizing pathways for alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis use problems from adolescence through adulthood · 2026 · DOI

  • High rates of turnover and burnout among peers. Limited supervisory support and professional development opportunities. Inadequate compensation and stigma as barriers to workforce sustainability.

    Workforce outcomes among substance use peer supports: a scoping review of individual and organizational influences · 2025 · DOI

  • Limited research has focused on workforce outcomes among substance use peer supports. Prior research has often neglected to consider the well-being of peers themselves. There is a need to identify individual and organizational contributors to workforce outcomes among peers.

    Workforce outcomes among substance use peer supports: a scoping review of individual and organizational influences · 2025 · DOI

  • A deeper understanding of the relationship between impulsivity facets and stages of substance use vulnerability can facilitate the development of better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for SUDs

    Impulsivity facets and substance use involvement: insights from genomic structural equation modeling · 2025 · DOI

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1,964 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 16,230 Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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