| Summary: | Less than 20 percent of the nation's 9.4 million drug-addicted and dependent individuals receive treatment each year. In spite of great strides made in research on the science and treatment of addiction, there are still many barriers to linking research findings with policy development and treatment implementation. Critical to improving treatment is closing the gap between community-based treatment organizations and researchers. Across the country, treatment providers talked with the committee about their needs for improved treatment. Consistently, providers expressed their need for research to help them determine efficacy and cost-effectiveness of treatments. Despite this need, relatively few researchers work closely with community-based treatment organizations, and even fewer providers actively participate in research. This is not to assign blame, but rather to explain why the gap exists and to find ways to bridge it
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