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Top 3 Clinical Measures You Should Know For Addiction Treatment

Measuring mental health and behavioral health conditions in a clinical setting is tricky.

If you’ve spent any time in the addiction treatment field, you know that what you’re observing in your clients is largely subjective. You’re human. You’ve missed things. You’ve misinterpreted things. 

Although they are far from perfect, clinical quality measures (CQMs) - sometimes referred to simply as “clinical measures” - can help quantify your patient’s condition and track treatment success. They are particularly valuable in addiction treatment, where the industry is beginning to move from fee based care to value based care, where outcomes need to be tracked meticulously.

Today, we’ll look at the top 5 clinical measures for addiction treatment. We’ll provide links for you to learn more about the clinical measures. 

We’ll also include the entire list of clinical measures that we’ve built into Behave Health’s EHR for easy reference. Need a specific clinical measure for your addiction treatment center? We’ve probably got you covered. 

Addiction Treatment Clinical Measure #1: GAD-7

GAD-7 stands for Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7, which is a seven question test that patients fill out to determine the severity of their anxiety. GAD-7 screens for nervousness, an inability to stop worrying, excessive worry, restlessness, difficulty relaxing, easy irritation, and overall sense of dread. 

GAD-7 can’t diagnose Generalized Anxiety Disorder, but it can help you determine whether or not to refer patients for clinical assessment. Many, many addiction treatment patients have elevated GAD-7 scores, so it is definitely worthwhile to administer this clinical measure for all of your intakes. 

Addiction Treatment Clinical Measure #2: PHQ-9 

PHQ-9 is a nine question screening tool for symptoms of depression that takes less than three minutes to complete. You’ve probably seen a PHQ-9 test at your primary care physician’s office, where they are widely administered. 

Unlike the results of the GAD-7, PHQ-9 results may be used by qualified clinicians to make a depression diagnosis. Depending on the score, PHQ-9 results will classify the severity of a patient’s depression from “none” to “severe.” 

Like anxiety, depression frequently co-occurs with Substance Use Disorder, so it is highly recommended you implement PHQ-9 during intakes at your addiction treatment center. 

Addiction Treatment Clinical Measure #3: BAM a.k.a Brief Addiction Monitor

The BAM (or Brief Addiction Monitor) is a 17 question clinical measure that quantifies the severity of Substance Use Disorder and the risk of relapse. It is frequently administered several times throughout treatment to measure treatment progress. 

The BAM poses such revealing questions as, “How confident are you in the ability to be completely abstinent from alcohol or drugs in the next 30 days?” and “In the past 30 days, how many days were you in contact or spent time with family members or friends who are supportive of your recovery?” 

The BAM is widely used in the VA to help measure treatment outcomes for veterans. The utility and track record of the BAM makes this test a must-have at your addiction treatment center. 

Behave Health Provides All the Clinical Measures Your Addiction Treatment Center Needs—in One Place 

Because we know how important clinical measures are when documenting and tracking SUD, we’ve included twelve different clinical measures in our all-in-one software solution for addiction treatment facilities. 

They’re all embedded into our app and, because all of Behave Health’s tools are stored in the cloud, all of our clinical measures can be completed by your clients on the device of their choice.

Here’s the full list of clinical measures we have available on the Behave Health App: 

  • GAD-7 (Anxiety)

  • PHQ-9 (Depression)

  • PHQ-15 (Somatic/Physical symptoms)  

  • DAST-10 (Drug Abuse Screening Test)

  • MDI (Major Depression Inventory)

  • BAM (Brief Addiction Monitor)

  • AUDIT-C 

  • PCL-C (PTSD Checklist - Civilian Version)

  • ACE score 

  • ASRM Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale 

  • ASI (Addiction Severity Index)

  • PDSS (Panic DIsorder Severity Scale)

Behave Health’s Clinical Measures are Free to Try 

Still have questions about our clinical measures and how they work? 

Get your free trial started today and see why more addiction treatment centers prefer Behave Health.

There’s no string attached, just create an account and start using the tools.