The impact of sexual victimization on substance use disorder treatment completion: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background

A significant proportion of individuals seeking treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) have experienced sexual victimization, which has been shown to disrupt the efficacy of SUD treatment services.

Objective

To evaluate the relationship between lifetime sexual victimization and SUD treatment completion.

Methods

Relevant literature was identified through a systematic, computerized search of nine electronic databases (May 2018) and reference harvesting, yielding 15 peer-reviewed articles published between 1992 and 2017. Two authors independently conducted title and abstract screens, full-text reviews, data abstraction, and methodological appraisals. Risk of bias was assessed using a modified mixed-methods appraisal tool. Only nine studies met criteria for the meta-analysis, which used a random-effects model.

Results

Included studies yielded mixed results regarding the impact of sexual victimization on treatment completion. The meta-analysis yielded a non-significant trend of survivors of sexual victimization having slightly lower odds of completing treatment.

Conclusions

Findings from this systematic review and meta-analysis did not support the impact of sexual victimization on treatment completion. Methodological limitations of the extant literature limit cross-study comparisons. Future studies should document program-related factors to improve the ability to understand relationships affecting treatment completion.