Christy K. Scott, PhD

Director of Lighthouse Institute, Emeritus and Research Director, Emeritus

Graduated University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992 (Personality and Quantitative Psychology, Child Development), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986 (Personality and Quantitative Psychology, Child Development), and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984 (Psychology)

Specialty areas: outcome monitoring; personality measurement; cognitive psychology; marriage and close relationships; educational research; child welfare; program development and management

Dr. Christy K Scott joined Chestnut Health Systems in 1994 serving first as the Regional Manager of the Lighthouse Institute—Chicago, then as Regional Director, and finally as the Director of Research and Development. During her tenure, she was the primary architect of Chestnut’s statewide outcome monitoring system (OMS; Scott, 2004), the Recovery Management Checkup (RMC) Model, and the Director of the Illinois Health Survey Laboratory. Dr. Scott has been designing and conducting studies since 1984 with a heavy emphasis on longitudinal follow-up with youth and adults. Using the outcome monitoring model she developed in the late 1990’s across 8 of her largest adult studies, her research team completed 51,820 interviews of the 54,999 (94%) due. Across these studies, follow-up windows ranged from 1-month post-study enrollment to 18 years post-intake, and samples included 50 to 100% females, high rates of homelessness, co-occurring health and psychiatric problems, criminal justice involvement, HIV risk, urban and rural populations, and study participants in all 50 U.S. states and eight other countries. The 19-year Pathways to Recovery study is one of the largest and longest longitudinal studies in the addiction field, and the follow-up rate at 19 years was 93%. Through the Coordinating Centers, Dr. Scott also supervised, both directly and indirectly, several studies targeting youth. She not only replicated the high follow-up rates achieved across other studies and populations but also successfully taught other researchers to use the model. This infrastructure has facilitated the long-term exploration of addiction over decades. In addition to her expertise in retaining difficult to locate subpopulations in longitudinal studies, Dr. Scott has a strong record of recruiting participants for studies. For the Juvenile Justice Translational Research for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) project, Dr. Scott oversaw the development and administration of 3 surveys with a nationally representative sample of juvenile probation agencies, substance use agencies, mental health agencies, and judges. Recruitment was done over the phone and in most cases without the assistance of key stakeholders. The study produced the highest response rates on record for studies of this type with 96% of the probation agencies participating, 95% of substance use agencies, 94% of mental health agencies, 97% of combined programs, and 90% of judges. Dr. Scott has authored or coauthored dozens of journal articles and manuscripts and been a regular presenter at professional conferences since the late 1990s. 

Selected Publications: 

Scott, C. K. (2004). A replicable model for achieving over 90% follow-up rates in longitudinal studies of substance abusers. Drug Alcohol Dependence, 74(1), 21–36. PMID: 15072804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2003.11.007

Scott, C. K., & White, W. (2005). Ethical issues in the conduct of longitudinal studies of addiction treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 28, S91–S101. PMID: 15797643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2004.10.012

Scott, C. K., Foss, M. A., & Dennis, M. L. (2005). Pathways in the relapse, treatment, and recovery cycle over three years. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 28, S61–S70. PMID: 15797640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2004.09.006

Scott, C. K., Dennis, M. L., & Foss, M. A. (2005). Utilizing recovery management checkups to shorten the cycle of relapse, treatment re-entry, and recovery. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 78(3), 325–338. PMID: 15893164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2004.12.005

Scott, C. K., Sonis, J., Creamer, M., & Dennis, M. L. (2006). Maximizing follow-up in longitudinal studies of traumatized populations. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 19(6), 757–769. PMID: 17195975. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20186

Dennis, M. L., Foss, M. A., & Scott, C. K. (2007). An eight-year perspective on the relationship between the education of abstinence and other aspects of recovery. Evaluation Review, 31(6), 585–612. PMID: 17986709. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841X07307771

Scott, C. K., & Dennis, M. L. (2009). Results from two randomized clinical trials evaluating the impact of quarterly recovery management checkups with adult chronic substance users. Addiction, 104, 959–971. PMID: 19344441. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02525.x

Scott, C. K., & Dennis, M. L. (2011). Recovery Management Checkups with adult chronic substance users. In J. F. Kelly, & W. L. White (eds.), Addiction Recovery Management: Theory, Research, and Practice (p. 87–102). New York: Springer. 

Scott, C. K, Dennis, M. L., Laudet, A., Funk, R. R., & Simeone, R. S. (2011). Surviving drug addiction: Do treatment and abstinence reduce mortality? American Journal of Public Health, 101, 737–744. PMID: 21330586. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2010.197038

Dennis, M. L., & Scott, C. K. (2012). Four-year outcomes from the Early Re-Intervention Experiment (ERI) with Recovery Management Checkups (RMC). Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 121, 10-17. PMID: 21903347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.07.026

McCollister, K. E., French, M. T., Freitas, D. M., Dennis, M. L., Scott, C. K., & Funk, R. R. (2013). Cost‐effectiveness analysis of recovery management checkups (RMC) for adults with chronic substance use disorders: Evidence from a 4‐year randomized trial. Addiction, 108(12), 2166–2174. PMID:23961833. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12335

Scott, C. K., Grella, C. E., Dennis, M. L., & Funk, R. R. (2016). A time varying model of risk for predicting recidivism among women offenders over three years following their release from jail. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43(9), 1137–1158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854816632551

Scott, C. K., Grella, C. E., Dennis, M. L., & Nicholson, L. (2018). Linking Individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) in Primary Care to SUD Treatment: the Recovery Management Checkups-Primary Care (RMC-PC) Pilot Study. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 45(2), 160–173. PMID: 39181779. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-017-9576-5

Scott, C. K., Dennis, M. L., & Lurigio, A. J. (2017). The effects of specialized probation and Recovery Management Checkups (RMCs) on treatment participation, substance use, HIV-risk behaviors, and recidivism among female offenders: Main findings of a three-year experiment using subject by intervention interaction analysis. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 13(1), 53–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-016-9281-z

Scott, C. K., Grella, C. E., Nicholson, L., & Dennis, M. L. (2018). Opioid recovery initiation: Pilot test of a peer outreach and modified Recovery Management Checkup intervention for out-of-treatment opioid users. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 86, 30–35. PMID: 29415848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2017.12.007

Scott, C. K., Dennis, M. L., Grella, C. E., & Carnevale, J. (2021). JCOIN prison interviews: The impact of the opioid crisis on U.S. state prison systems. Funded by NIDA grant # U01DA036221, April 21, 2021. https://gmu1.app.box.com/s/brcb3nbf9pltdaijz4qd2740dx32zc5c

Scott, C. K., Dennis, M. L., Grella, C. E., Mischel, A. F., & Carnevale, J. (2021). The impact of the opioid crisis on U.S. state prison systems. Health & Justice, 9(1), 17. PMC8310396. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-021-00143-9

Scott, C. K., Dennis, M. L., Grella, C. E., Watson, D. P., Davis, J. P., & Hart, M. K. (2023). Using recovery management checkups for primary care to improve linkage to alcohol and other drug use treatment: a randomized controlled trial three month findings. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 118(3), 520–532. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16064

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Selected Grants and Contracts: 

Evaluation Director: Target Chicago (subcontract to CHS for evaluation from the State of Illinois (CSAT: Z-6-0102, 1993–1999) 

Co-Principal Investigator: Developing an Outcome Monitoring System (DOMS) (Interventions Foundation: R000, 1995–1997) 

Coordinating Center Co-Principal Investigator: Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) Coordinating Center (CSAT: TI11320, 1997–2001) 

Co-Investigator: Assertive Aftercare Protocol (AAP) experiment (NIAAA: RO1 AA 10368, 1997–2003) 

Co-Principal Investigator: Early Re-Intervention (ERI) Experiment (NIDA: 1R37 DA11323, 1999–2015) 

Principal Investigator: Persistent Effect of Treatment Study (PETS)—Adult (CSAT: 270-97-7011, 1999–2002) 

Principal Investigator: Pathways to Recovery (NIDA: 1R01 DA15523, 2002–2007) 

Principal Investigator: Recovery Management Checkups for Women Offenders (RMC-WO) (NIDA: 1R01 DA021174, 2007–2014) 

Principal Investigator: Pathways to Recovery Among Older Adults (NIDA: 1R01 DA15523, 2010–2015) 

Consultant: Economic Evaluation of Recovery Management Checkups for Women Offenders (RMW-WO) (NIDA: R01 DA031785, 2011–2014) 

Advisor: Phone-Based Postpartum Continuing Care: Smoking Cessation Beginning in Pregnancy (NIDA: R34 DA032683, 2012–2014) 

Multi-Principal Investigator: Juvenile Justice Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal Systems (JJ-TRIALS) Coordinating Center to reduce substance use, HIV risk behaviors, and crime (NIDA: 1-U01-DA036221, 2013–2021) 

Principal Investigator: Using Smartphones to Provide Recovery Support Services (NIDA: 1-RO1-DA 035879, 2014–2019) 

Principal Investigator: Recovery Initiation and Management after Overdose (RIMO) Experiment (NIDA: R21/R33 DA045774, 2017–2021) 

Principal Investigator: Recovery Management Checkups for Primary Care (RMC-PC) vs. Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Experiment (NIAAA: 1R01 AA024440, 2017–2022) 

Co-Investigator: Smartphone Addiction Recovery Coach for Adolescents (SARC-A) Experiment (NIDA: R01 DA011323, 2017–2025) 

Appointments and Awards: 

Chair and member of NIDA F Health Services Research Review Group (2005–2009)  

Member off NIH Health Services Organization and Delivery (HSOD) Review Group (2009–2013) 

Guest Editor of Clinical Assessment and Substance Abuse Treatment: The Target Cities Experience (2002–2003); Evaluation and Program Planning (2003) 

Member of American Evaluation Association, American Psychological Association, and College of Problems on Drug Dependence 

NIDA MERIT Award for DA11323, Early Re-Intervention (ERI) Experiment (2004) 

Dan Anderson Research Award from Hazelden (2012) 

Related Links:

Chris Scott Google Scholar 

Chris Scott Bibliography