Over the last 50 years, the number and type of psychological interventions among substance users have grown, ranging from very brief information interventions of a few minutes duration to lengthy residential treatment, including extended psychotherapy. Approaches to psychological treatment tend to vary according to substance class with, for example, brief interventions commonly being applied and evaluated for excessive drinking and less commonly for metham-phetamine use. In addition to substance class, different health systems appear to fund widely different treatment episode durations, with many treatments in the USA being delivered over 28 days or more on a day patient or residential basis while a few outpatient sessions might be offered for similar case presentations in Australia. Treatment content can vary widely from country to country, on such key features as goals of treatment (e.g. abstinence vs. moderation), underlying theory or philosophy [e.g. cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) vs. 12-step counselling] and mode (individual therapy, group delivery or computer).
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