• Andrew Healey, Martin Knapp, John Marsden, Michael Gossop, and Duncan Stewart.
• LSE Health and Social Care and PSSRU, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
• J Health Serv Res Policy. 2003 Jul 1; 8 (3): 134-41.

ObjectivesTo assess the incremental cost-effectiveness of drug addiction treatment programmes provided in the UK by the National Health Service and not-for-profit agencies in terms of crime-related outcomes. All costs and crime-related outcomes were implicitly evaluated relative to a 'no treatment' alternative.MethodsLongitudinal observational data on a national sample of heroin addicts referred to addiction treatment services throughout England were re-analysed. Predictions from a Poisson random-effects model were used to estimate the incremental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of treatment programmes. Interaction variables were used to assess whether the injecting of heroin on entry to treatment had an impact on cost-effectiveness.ResultsThe findings rejected the null hypothesis that increasing time in treatment (and therefore treatment cost) has no mean crime prevention effect on clients referred for community-based methadone treatment, treatment delivered within specialist drug dependency units and residential rehabilitation programmes (P < 0.05). However, the size of the cost per unit of effect based on model predictions was sensitive to the exclusion of a small group of outlying observations. The interaction between client injecting status and time in treatment was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05), with an estimated reduction in treatment cost-effectiveness across all treatment programmes for clients who reported injecting drugs at treatment intake.ConclusionsWhilst the analyses did not include an evaluation of the effect of treatment programmes on client health and quality of life and stopped short of providing a social weighting for the predicted reduction in crimes, they do offer a useful starting point for establishing the cost-effectiveness of treating heroin addiction. The onus is on public decision-makers to decide whether the predicted reductions in crime are worth the opportunity costs of investing extra resources in a major expansion of treatment services.

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