Treatment Monitoring and Reporting Systems : Special Topic Issue: European Addiction Research 1999, Vol. 5, No. 4

When illegal drug problems started to increase dramatically in the last decades, many European countries observed a lack of reliable information on drug use and drug users.

Treatment monitoring systems have since been developed for more than 15 years in different parts of Europe.

While they have been known to experts for a long time, the audience was rather restricted.

This issue gives a broad overview on a variety of systems developed in different countries in Europe.

Besides national input, the Pompidou protocol, a first international standard for treatment monitoring, has been the basis for the development.

This new European standard, which is supported by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and the Pompidou Group at the same time is published here for the first time. This instrument developed by an expert group will be welcomed by experts for treatment information systems and therapists with an interest in international cooperation.