Case management: a method of addressing subject selection and recruitment issues.

Enrolling pregnant substance-using women into chemical dependence treatment continues to present a major challenge for social services and health care professionals. Recruitment problems are exacerbated further when enrollment includes participation in a clinical trial. In 1989 Washington State embarked on a 6-year research and demonstration project funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study optional treatment modalities and the recruitment of pregnant substance-using women. The project was implemented in Washington State as the King County Perinatal Treatment Project (MOM’s Project). Project researchers hypothesized that pregnant substance-using women and their infants would have improved pregnancy and child development outcomes if mothers participated in chemical dependence treatment during pregnancy. Project eligibility criteria required women to be in their first or second trimester of pregnancy (prior to 28 weeks gestation), be older than age 16, and have a diagnosis of chemical dependence.