Definition:
American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)'s criteria, formerly known as the ASAM patient placement criteria, is the result of a collaboration that began in the 1980s to define one national set of criteria for providing outcome-oriented and results-based care in addictions treatment. Today the criteria have become the most widely used and comprehensive set of guidelines for placement, continued stay, and transfer/discharge of patients with addiction and co-occurring disorders (COD). ASAM's criteria are required in over 30 states.
ASAM's criteria is an indispensable resource that addiction medicine professionals rely on to provide a nomenclature for describing the continuum of addiction services.
More about ASAM criteria can be found here.