SynthesisJournal of substance use and addiction treatment2025
One-stop shopping for recovery? A systematic review of the evidence on U.S. recovery community centers.
Synthesis in Journal of substance use and addiction treatment, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- A meta-review of the evidence on addiction recovery mutual help organizations.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2026Review
- Facilitators, barriers, and strategies for optimizing engagement in recovery community centers among sexual minority people in the U.S. Northeast.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Adolescent Self-Reported Recovery for Substance Use in Illinois: Statewide Representative Epidemiological Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Article
- Effects of participation in a large, online community for substance use disorder recovery: A naturalistic, longitudinal study.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIncreased recognition of the need for community-based substance use disorder (SUD) recovery support services (RSS) to complement and extend clinical care efforts has led to growth in a variety of RSS including recovery community centers (RCCs). Given increased national focus on expanding RCC research, this systematic review examined published research on RCCs.
methodWe searched five publicly available empirical databases to retrieve existing studies on the effects of RCC participation through May 2024. Standardized summarization and quality assessment tools were utilized to provide systematic reporting and ratings of study quality.
resultsSeven studies (participant Ns range = 78 to 3459) were included, none of which were randomized/non-randomized comparative effectiveness designs; four were single-group prospective/retrospective and three, cross-sectional. The longest follow-up duration was limited to 6-months. Participants were mostly white, male, with high clinical pathology, low socio-economic status, and low recovery capital; primary substance was inconsistently reported, but mostly opioids or alcohol. RCC participation duration and intensity were positively associated with improvements in substance use, recovery capital, and psychosocial functioning. Major limitations pertained to inadequate description of samples, no "intent-to-treat" analyses, lack of inferential analyses, and atheoretical delineations of tested models and variables.
conclusionsDespite national growth of RCCs, the quantity and quality of existing evidence is limited. Where reported, participation appears to be correlated with reductions in substance use and improved well-being. The limited evidence suggests RCCs may serve as a distinct, visible community access point for individuals with high psychopathology and low recovery capital to access support and resources. Given the disparity between the observed growth and promising preliminary results of RCCs and lack of rigorous evaluation, this review highlights a compelling need for further research investment to provide better estimates of the potential clinical and public health utility of RCCs in the RSS landscape.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.